To think that Health visitors are a certain annoying breed generally?

[Moomin8]

I've just had my 4th baby and the health visitor came the other day. I found her really annoying and rude. First of all she came walking into my living room in her dirty boots and got mud all over my newly cleaned carpet.

My youngest before dc4 is 10 years old and the HV said she was going to therefore talk to me as if I'd never actually had a baby she also wanted to look in my bedroom - I told her no.

Then I thought back to my older dc and their HVs and realised they are all pretty much the same whereas midwives, when they visit are really nice and helpful usually and don't speak to you as though you're an idiot. I'm a 39 year old university educated person and I find these people intrusive and annoying.

What is it with health visitors?

Contact the organisation which sends them and make it clear what displeased you. There is no way I would allow them into my property, particularly if they referred to me as “mum”.

Are you also doubting all of the people reporting very positive experiences with their HVs, or only the ones whose reports you don't like?

I doubt just about everything I read on the internet, don't you? Oh and whilst we're at it, I doubt what is in the media as well. I find questioning things is a good starting point for establishing facts. This is something we learned as student nurses.

When I arrived home after a very long labour, many stitches and not a terrible lot of support from my DH who immediately returned to work (self employed) my health visitor insisted I should take my baby out (freezing weather in Feb) as it was important to go outside. I managed to the end of the street and then came back, exhausted ... and decided I would go out when I wanted in future!

It was not as if the house was unkempt or I was not dressed or the house clean ... all tremendous efforts just after birth ... it was the thing which made me feel very tearful and sad, like I was failing.

My HV with my first was a little patronising but I have thick skin and wasn’t particularly bothered. She did mention that having dogs and babies together wasn’t a good combination. Oh how I chuckled when I thought of my 3 in the next room including a couple of huge mastiffs who went on to become my babies best friends and protectors. She was also utterly useless when I asked about reflux as I suspected baby had it, made me think I must be mad and that all babies were that hard. GP confirmed a week later and started him on medication Immediately.
HV with my 2nd baby was male and he was wonderful, kind, cheery, funny and so encouraging. I was in a different area at that point so I think it really is the luck of the draw. There are good and bad in every profession it’s just that it’s such a stressful and vulnerable time it’s noticed more

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll I do agree with you and have encouraged people to make complaints about the stories they shared. I don’t want to cover up poor practice. I even said I believe it’s necessary in order to continually improve services.
The only thing I disagree with regarding this thread is branding every health visitor as useless and championing the service be abolished. There is no denying that some people on this thread had a poor service, some stories made me absolutely appalled at the health visitor and truly sad for the family. But I genuinely believe the service is vital and that the majority of health visitors deliver a high quality service in increasingly difficult circumstances. The health visitors who don’t should be dealt with and the service/ commissioners should always look At feedback to improve.

Wow there are a lot of unnecessary and vile comments on this thread, nasty...

Peoples experiences are valid.

I do get irritated when the same names pop up on threads about one area like the NHS and are always negative.

OhTheRoses always pops up on NHS threads so ai want surprised she wasn’t happy with health visitors either.

However her experience is valid and she makes good points in her posts, not least the stuff about equality. Why are parents for example referred to as “Mum says” or “Dad says” rather than being referred to as Mr or Mrs X have witnessed x, y or z?”

I've not read all the replies on this thread but I agree with the sentiment of the OP.

I put in a formal complaint about my HV after being messed about and harassed over visits. She then thought it would be appropriate to phone me and have it out with me on the phone!!

It was my first child, I had undiagnosed PND, dreadful anxiety and had no idea how things worked.

I now work in childcare and the amount of childminders losing business because these ill-informed 'professionals' are advising parents to put their kids into nurseries and take them away from their childminder is disgusting.

Get rid of them i say, how many children have been killed after being abused by parents/step parents and the HV hasn't done anything.
It's all red-tape, they're as useful as chocolate a teapot sorry to the very few in the minority who are nice people, your shitty colleagues are letting you down.