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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think that health visitors are undervalued

67 replies

Reallytired · 22/01/2010 16:46

I have been lucky that I have had good health visitors with both my children. The health visitor I had with my son was good and the health visitor that I have for my daughter is truely gifted at her job.

In the past there were far more health visitors. In our area many of the health visitors have been replaced with nursery nurses and to pay for surestart. Many of the activites at our local surestart centre are frills. Baby yoga is not essential to bringing up a healthy child. Many of the activites are difficult to access for second time mums.

In the past health visitors had time to work with women with postnatal depression or parenting problems. A mother struggling with the terrible twos may well have depression. a nursery nurse does not have the skills to pick this up.

OP posts:

curiositykilledhaskittens · 23/01/2010 17:52

I think it is shocking that Health Visitors are not trained in these basic things Infant nutrition generally) and I never realised they weren't as it seems so obviously necessary to me (and must be a huge part of the job)! I don't think it is the Health Visitors fault though. They should recieve adequate support in their work to be able to support mums in their homes. It makes me wonder how the powers that be identify what is necessary to train HCPs in. The trend for replacing HV posts with nursery nurses is worrying to me too. Especially if they are then going to be relied upon to do the Health Visitor's job either routinely or in emergencies as seems to happen at my practice. I think one of the reasons my problems have been poorly handled is because my HV has had a lot of holidays over xmas and the nursery nurse has been sent twice instead of her not that I now have any confidence in this particular HV.

JollyPirate · 23/01/2010 17:56

In our clinic curiosity we are lucky enough to have a brilliant nursery nurse who really supports parents - she runs a really good baby massage group as well. We don't ask her to do anything which is part of the HV role as such but we are leaning more and more on her and the two staff nurses as we are so short-staffed and the child protection work in my area is horrendous.

mummygirl · 23/01/2010 18:11

It's surely silly to say "all hvs are this or that"but my hv was so rude, patronising and presumptious that was politely kicked out and never to be seen again (thank go). So just any mentioning of hvs gets my back up. I know IABU.

MummyTumble · 23/01/2010 18:12

My HV is an absolute star! Very lucky to have her.

ShowOfHands · 23/01/2010 18:17

Our hv is a twonk.

However, the hv at the nearest clinic is bloody brilliant. She's an old hippy, loves co-sleeping and extended bfing and smells of patchouli. I get on fabulously with her. I think I have a crush on her in fact. She always has biscuits with her. I think that helps. And she looks every single Mum and Dad in the eye and tells them very sincerely 'you're doing very well indeed'. I'm going to clone her later.

Morloth · 23/01/2010 18:21

Do they contact you after you have a baby? Or do you need to contact them? Presumably you can just tell them "Thanks but, no thanks" if you don't need any assistance?

ShowOfHands · 23/01/2010 18:27

You just ask to be taken off their Child Surveillance whatsit. They're not obligatory.

onlyjoinedforoffers · 23/01/2010 18:31

our hv was shock2 has autism and she said "dont be silly" ....he had

ImSoNotTelling · 23/01/2010 18:38

We are in an area with not much HV contact.

DD1 I had the visit at home after birth and that was it.

DD2 same.

DD1 is 2.5 we have not been called for a check or anything, I did think they did one at 2 but never mind.

There is a baby clinic where you go to take your baby to be weighed and they put it in the book, I think you can ask for advice then as well. They don't comment otehrwise though.

Morloth they are supposed to be healthcare professional types who look after children and families in teh community I think.

In some areas where I think they have more funding they come and see you after baby, keep an eye on you and baby, and other children etc. I think that in some places they come and visit you periodically at home but not sure about that.

ImSoNotTelling · 23/01/2010 18:39

So in answer to the OP, as I live in an area where you don't get assigned a health visitor, you just see whoever happens to be around, I can't really say anything other than the ones I have seen have all been fine.

ImSoNotTelling · 23/01/2010 18:41

Re getting taken off surveillance thingy, I would personally say it is a good idea to get them weighed periodically, so the red book looks like you are following guidelines IYSWIM.

bebesequin · 23/01/2010 18:46

I think to be honest they are doing a pretty thankless task- and from what I can gather they spend most of their time working in child protection with vulnerable families who are ususally not engaging -since the implementation of Hall 4 they have very limited contact with ordinary families- The hvs pay also changed after 'agenda for change'and instead of being paid around 40k like nursing sisters as previously their pay dropped quite a bit- a poor deal when most hvs have trained for five years most have two degrees-this impacted on recruitment and obviously morale

wouldn't fancy their job to be honest -I liked all the ones I have had and the ones I have met through my work

EssenceOfJack · 23/01/2010 18:53

I have had 3 HV's due to my 'normal' one being on holidays whenever I gave birth.
My normal HV is lvoely, very supportive, totally bfing friendly, interested in BLW and actually looked into it after I mentioned it. I love her.

One of the others came, didn't touch week old DD2 as 'she was sleeping' and proceeded to stay for an hour whining about her kids

Another one was so ff friendly she had this face when I bf in front of her, and said 'Could you wait until I have gone before you do that, please' [double ]

So like any job, some are great, some are shit, some are middling.

BrigitBigKnickers · 23/01/2010 18:54

We had a brill HV when my DDs were small.

She was non-judgemental and gave great sensible advice. She not only taught our antenatal classes but a great post natal course too. She really knew her stuff.

She visited one of our antenatal group one day. My friend had taken her baby son (about 3 months old ) to the doctors that morning, as she was concerned about his colour (slightly blue lips.) The doctor had told her he was fine and not to worry. The HV took one look at him and called an ambulance.

Turned out he had a serious heart condition.
He had had to have open heart surgery the next day. Now a strapping 13 year old, he probably has her to thank for his now superb health (possibly his life too.)

wahwah · 23/01/2010 18:55

I've only met mine a couple of times, as tbh I don't need her support, but the two I saw were lovely and I had every confidence in them.

skidoodle · 23/01/2010 19:01

The HV I had with DD was just so lovely.

She was also a qualified breastfeeding counsellor, and was so encouraging when DD was putting on weight v. v. slowly.

When I'd bring DD in to be weighed I'd be sure she'd gained half a lb or something, but it was always only a couple of oz. Once when she saw my crestfallen face she grabbed a bit of flesh on DD's (rather skinny) thigh and said "look at all this chub!

She was one of those really warm people that make you feel really positive about everything, and I always left feeling confident and reassured.

From what you read on MN she was the opposite of a lot of HVs. She was wonderful, but not the regular HV at my surgery, so I won't have her this time

arolf · 23/01/2010 19:02

our local HV team are good - very pro-bf, pro BLW (nursery nurse is a HUGE fan and talks about Gill Rapely in reverent terms ), very on the ball and sensible. they are like my mum, but better, in that they nag less and support more also they keep telling me I'm doing well, which makes me love them all the more (esp when I've got family telling me the opposite!).

plus, when I mentioned mn to them , they were very positive about it - always a good sign!

cory · 23/01/2010 19:02

My HVs were great. They were the ones that spotted that there was something wrong with dd, but they were very gentle about it. Also very supportive of breastfeeding. And they ran a group for new mums, and prodded me to go to it.

Coldhands · 23/01/2010 19:18

My first HV was fantastic, she couldn't do enough and I would have struggled even more without her help. Then we moved. I expected all HV were like the one I had had until I got to 'meet' mine. I never actually saw her, only spoke to her on the phone. She wouldn't come to my house, said I had to go to the clinic, which I found quite difficult and explained this to her but she wasn't interested. It was never her at the clinic, but she did put me in touch with Surestart which I am very grateful for. Asking for advice on weaning was a waste of time as I wanted to do it before 6 months so she wouldn't help me. I got a good book though. Luckily she left, and my new one is wonderful. DS was taken to hospital last year after a febrile convulsion and she must have been sent the details so she phoned me to see how he was and how I was doing. I was so grateful that I had that support.

I have heard a lot of people complain about HV, and some of them do really deserve it. If they are like that, they shouldn't be in the job, but there are lovely ones out there and we need more of them!

Original poster

Reallytired · 23/01/2010 19:20

I think that the important thing is to let your health visitor know what you want and need from them. Health visitors that I have met are intelligent women, but they aren't mind readers.

Being a health visitor is a difficult job and its no wonder that mistakes are made occassionally. Mothers can be tricky creatures.

OP posts:

EdgarAllenSnow · 23/01/2010 19:35

my health visitor is not a warm human being - so much so my neighbour remarked how scary she looked. fortunately, i really didn't need much help.

my neighbour loves her HV, though, and gets lots of support - i just think it depends on the one you get.

so far on MN, i have noted several occasions where HVs have

been v useful
Given shoddy advice on BF, indeed scared women out of it
left women in tears believeing they are bad mothers
made them paranoid about the minutiae of their childs progress against markers
Reassured women and helped them to get more support -

so like all things you gt good and you get bad ones. I really don't think overwork can be an excuse for giving advice that is just plain wrong, or upsetting people to the point they throw them out of their house (not an uncommon occurence here on MN it seems!)

dignified · 23/01/2010 20:28

Health visiters are shit. i would rather see a trained chimp!

sazlocks · 23/01/2010 20:38

Professionally I have worked with some great HVs and some crap ones.
Personally I found that I got better support from the nursery nurse attached to a local under 1s group than any of the HVs.
FWIW I think most HVs are massively stretched and probably don't feel like they have enough time to deal with anything but the most basic issues and hard to deal with cases.
I think there is a case for much better training on breastfeeding for HVs.

JemL · 23/01/2010 21:30

Does that mean that I should be letting my HV know that what I want from her is not to tell me I should get a coil so I don't end up pregnant and having to abort my third baby as apparently she knows loads of mums who do?!?!

l39 · 23/01/2010 23:19

Bloody hell, JemL!

The HVs I saw with my older girls were fine. They've moved on though and the new lot are awful. I've only been to the clinic 3 times and I've overheard them saying a newborn should always go at least 2 hours between breastfeeds, a 6-week old shouldn't get too many cuddles because 'they manipulate you' and an 8-week old should be left to cry because 'you're the boss, not him!'.

I've been eager to have a go at the least provocation, tbh, but the victims of this advice have been young girls who look like first time mums. As soon as they see I'm on my fifth they must realise I'm not going to listen to their rubbish, because they can't get me out of there fast enough.

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