I'm a health visitor

[HurricaneLane]

So you can AMA?

But as we seem to get such a bad reputation I'm thinking of starting a blog or a social media account to try and show that we are helpful, want to help and really aren't offering what people alot of the time think of us?

Can I ask if you would find this helpful, and whether a blog or social account would be better?

Honestly, I just don't understand the point of HV.

My HV with DD1 was a very nice woman who'd been a paeds nurse. I had PND at the time and no idea how she was meant to help with that. I mean, doing a module or so on a Level 7 degree really doesn't equip you to deal with a serious mental health issue. I am not aware she had any proper clinical experience of dealing with MH issues and think it's really dangerous to delegate maternal MH like that.

With my twins, we never saw the HV. We had a snippy voicemail saying she was on our doorstep for an antenatal visit and where was I. I was in hospital having given birth to two poorly babies one of whom was having an MRI. I left her a voicemail, telling her so fairly directly. Twins now 5, never seen her.

Why isn't there better communication? I mean if a woman has given birth why isn't the HV notified if she is supposed to be part of the care team? I realised later the HV didn't even know I'd had a multiple pregnancy.

Loved my health visitor I had no clue on my first and she knocked my door like a breath of fresh air I was so happy to see her and ask her all my questions

Haven't RTFT and I don't have a question. I just want to say that both my HVs were great, 24 and 14 years ago.
My mum diagnosed with terminal cancer when DS2 was a few weeks old and I was also in an emotionally abusive marriage (but had not admitted it to myself). Only in hindsight and a period of bad MH and subsequent intense support have I recognised that she was keeping an extra eye on me and offering additional support in a non intrusive way. I feel confident that she would have caught me if I had fallen.

If the mother of q newborn is hysterical down the phone about domestic abuse then would the father be able to access the notes?

I think with lockdown alot of us struggled, we couldn't give the care we really wanted to and I'm sorry this happened to you.

No, absolutely not. That wouldn't happen, only mum and babies notes are connected and that is the reason as to why.

With maternal mental health there is so much more training that goes on, we also have a very big peri natal mental health team- it's really at the forefront of the public health agenda at present

Why is there such a lack of mental health care aftercare for new mums? My friend had serious PTSD and depression from a traumatic birth and multiple health visitors gave her zero support, resources or help. All they asked about was the baby. The baby was fine, she was absolutely not fine. Thank god she had friends and family to pick her up otherwise I fear what would have happened.

Hi, we have yet to have 27 month review but due shortly and will discuss further - my daughter isn’t talking at all yet and doesn’t imitate. I wondered if this is still considered within the “normal” timeframe? Information is so conflicting as to whether it’s an issue yet. Thanks.

Bad experiences for me both times with my children (3&5)
The first one told me that although I was exclusively expressing, I should give formula as my "supply wouldn't keep up."
And the second one o had to ask to leave the house on my prenatal visit cus she was so god damn rude and judgey!

Why do some health visitors visit homes before the birth whereas others ink the after?

Thank you. I loved my hv too.

My health visitor was amazing. I always looked forward to her visits. She’d never had children herself but I found her an absolute font of knowledge. I always appreciated her advice and support.

Personally I don't think there should be any expectations either way. Leave women alone, those who want to breastfeed should be able to and so should those who want to bottle feed, with no judgment either way.

No questions, but I just want to say that I was brilliantly supported by my health visitor in the last couple of months of pregnancy and for the first few months of DD's life. She made a hugely positive impact on me and I was grateful for it as my community midwife was about as useful as chocolate teapot.

That's great @Jadviga except that it was very clear to me that there was an absolute bias towards expectations that everyone would be using formula at 12 months!

And of course very little apparent interest or knowledge about breastfeeding when I was an utterly inexperienced FTM desperate to figure out how to go from expressing and bottle feeding to direct full time breastfeeding. So, great, don't show any bias either way but that isn't the same thing as just basically shrugging and leaving me to it on my own.

Can I ask why so few of you seem to know the correct guidelines for infantile haemangiomas? Why do so many hv give incorrect advice on these?

Why is it when I phone the health visitor line I can only ever leave a voicemail? It's so so frustrating. Is it like this everywhere?

Do you think you should make it clearer to parents that you are an optional service? I opted out with my last two children and would have done sooner had I known it was an option.

Are you trained to advise parents to sleep train/CIO? Because mine did even though I said I was perfectly happy supporting to sleep.

My health visitors with both my DDs have been lovely, I enjoyed their visits but (I’m sorry this sounds awf) but I don’t get the point of them (for me). Just recited off a load of info I could have found on google…hardly looked ah the baby, I guess the weighing was useful to check they were growing ok. Really horrible nosy question, do you often visit really neglectful homes, what’s the criteria for getting SS involved?

I didn’t have any positive experiences with mine. They seemed clueless and more interested in talking about diets or wrapping Xmas presents.
My mother was one and she was absolutely useless as well when I asked for help or advice.
I struggled to breastfeed my first child after a very traumatic delivery and time in SCUBU. The HV was absolutely no use at all.

A close family member has just had a baby and had similar experiences with two different HVs.

My experience was good and bad to be fair but that mirrors all my experiences in NHS some are lovely and some are downright rude.
I especially liked the rude note I was left for being at work for my pre birth home visit that I wasn't informed about, hence not being there.
This also happened after my 2nd birth with a midwife who left me a very snippy voicemail, my baby was in a nicu at another hospital whilst I was still at the original hospital.
Shocking lack of information sharing there.

On the whole most are brilliant though.

What do you mean by 5 mandated contacts?

After I contacted the police to report DV the police reported it to the health visitor. The health visitor phoned the house phone and left a message saying I needed to make an urgent appointment to see her. DH was home before me and heard it. This alerted DH to the fact the DV had been reported. Potentially leaving me vulnerable to further abuse.

Is there no safeguarding rules that prevent something so stupid happening or was she just incompetent?

After this she insisted she had to phone DH back because he had phone her (because of the message) and discuss the reason for the message with him. Only when I begged her not to did she go to her manager and agree not to call him.