How did a health visitor help you?

[Daboomboom]

Blatant taat but I feel like HVs get a lot of grief so we need to balance it.

I know there are some awful HVs but I do think they are much maligned and do a lot of unseen good work.

Mine saw I was teary and not "right" when no one else did and quickly put something in place for me.

The HVs at the local SureStart centre were brilliant at just being available and encouraging. One if them said just the right thing at just the right to me and that has stuck with me.

I dont know what I would have done without the SureStart centres tbh.

I was lucky with health visitors. 3 kids in 3 different areas and no negative experiences. With my first I lived in a big city and didn't really see them much but didn't need to. When I did see them they were absolutely fine. With my second I had reflux and she was lovely, made sure I got the help I needed with that and was really supportive. My third child i had no issues but my HV was just a really warm, friendly lady every time I saw her. Health visiting as it should be I suppose - no judgment, just support when needed.

They didn’t. Fucking awful. Sure start had started closing down here by the time I had Dts.

Spent an hour with me when I was absolutely at breaking point, gentle helping me make a plan for what I was going to change.

I'm not even sure it was a great plan. But I was that sleep deprived I just wasn't functioning and didn't seem able to make any decisions. It was a real turning point. She didn't tell me what to do and she didn't send me to the GP for antidepressants, she helped me structure my own plan and that was exactly what I needed.

I lost my first child to cot death at 14 weeks. When I got pregnant again I was terrified. My HV came to see me once a week during my pregnancy. She was very kind and I was able to cry my eyes out with her holding my hand.

When my baby came she was there for me again, every week. She even sent a colleague out when she was on annual leave. By this time, I had developed an autoimmune disease, lupus and my HV was a mine of support and information. I wouldn’t have got through without my HV.

spotting an infection and getting ahead of it by guessing antibiotics that i would need. results 3 days later confirmed she was right and i was well on the way to recovery.

You are lucky, I am sure there are great ones but mine honestly made me feel really crap. Didn’t spot my PND, in retrospect. One spent a long time telling me about how lovely her own newborn days were when I knew nobody and felt awful. Another laughed when I had dragged myself along to weigh my baby, and was sat in the corner by myself feeling as awful as I ever have with mastitis. Told me to eat some cream cakes.

I don't get the hate for health visitors here, it's a vital public service that has saved many lives. Is it some sort of extreme defensiveness triggered by pregnancy?

I think because you come into contact with them when you are very vulnerable anything you could normal just brush off, you are less able to.

I've realised that people mostly share "bad" pregnancy/birth/baby stories. No one ever tells everyone about the birth and post birth that went all to plan. The same with HV I think. The good ones (or even mediocre ones) just go by mostly unnoticed.

Health visitors? I got one visit. She was fine, checked my wound (section) and gave some advice about that, looked over baby. Then quit (I’m sure not related)! None for my second baby. Instead I would walk to the local baby clinic for baby to be checked and weighed etc. Other than those basics they didn’t really have time to talk as it was set hours and as no HVs in the area a lot of parents to see. So nice idea in theory and I’m sure very helpful to assess if the environment is safe for baby, but in reality there aren’t enough of them and with no NHS budget unlikely to get more.

I had a great health visitor when when DC now early twenties were born.
When I moved area and Teen DC were born the HV service was non existent, they didn't come to you, you went to a clinic, staffed by healhcare assistants, you weighed your baby yourself and tbh I'm not sure what the point of it was!
However first health visitor, visited at home initially, would spend as long as needed with you.
She introduced me to another mum in the area when she know wee were both lonely and we became close friends.
She gave me "permission" to see caring for a newborn as equivalent to full time job and to lower my expectations about what else I could fit in ie housework, gardening, decorating etc
She also advised me to structure my week and get out the house as much as I could which was also advice.
I knew she would do whatever she could to help, lovely supportive lady.
Ive no idea what the HV service is like now but it had been downgraded and substantially cut back in the 7 years between my eldest and youngest

Mine was fairly nondescript; I think we saw her twice and she regurgitated information from various leaflets as she held up said leaflet and that was that. I think she said she’d contact me again at X weeks but I never heard from her again.
On the other hand we go to a lovely play group run by a group of ex/retired HVs, it’s free, they make you a tea/coffee, bring round plates of biscuits, will happily hold/play with baby if you need a break and answer all your ‘is it normal…’ type questions.

We have a lovely health visitor that fills in all the tedious referrals for me.

First baby wasn’t keen. Second I had the loveliest hv who was so supportive, realised I wasn’t right and kept phoning to check on me and gently said she didn’t think I was ‘ok’ I wasn’t but I didn’t know why. She was great, got me help and support. The rest of that team were lovely too. Hv for youngest 2 also lovely really nice and bump into her in town sometimes now too.

Mine was amazing. Never judged, held my hand and let me cry and listened to all of my worries whilst giving gentle advice. My dh was away in the forces and she was my support. I honestly don’t think I would have gotten through it all without her.