General rant about HV...

[asur]

Just as it says in title, want to have a rant about HV...

Took DS to get his immunisation today. 2pm appointment, HV said to me at 2.30pm "shouldn't be too long, I'm running a little late" a little late?!

Eventually taken at 2.45pm (without apology) and she tries to have a chat with me - I have absolutely no interest in speaking to her as she is a total cow. Anyway, as she's sorting the needle out, she asks if he's feeding well, which I say he is. She then says "how much is feeding?" I tell her whenever he asks to which she replies, "no, how much is he actually taking a day?" I tell her I have no idea, I just feed him when he's hungry. She looks at me like I just said the most awful thing ever... So she asks again "on average how much he is eating a day?" I say I have no idea how to measure the milk that comes out of my boob so I have no idea... she then says "oh, are you only breastfeeding? does he not get anything else?" He is 16weeks old FFS!!! ARGH!!!!

She is just majorly incompetent anyway (hence why this is only the 3rd time I've seen her) but that was just the most stupid thing; like 16 weeks on just breastmilk must be terrible.

She also asked me how many hours sleep I got a night - WTF? I don't know, I'm asleep so I don't count the hours!!

Ok, I'd better stop there, think I'll go have a nice cool drink while feed my poor DS some more boring breastmilk.

I have to agree with the people saying that it's ok for GP's etc to check in books before prescribing but I think the point yellowrose was making was that her GP looked at the book then went to prescribe something which was not suitable. I had a similar experience, GP prescribed something after looking in book but when I checked afterwards, found that it was not safe in pregnancy and in tests was found to cause birth defects such as cleft palate! it's fine to check info but make sure that they have checked it properly.

as for the 2 options you gave amijee. I DID make a complaint and the response I got from the GP basically said "if you feel the need to check what is prescribed then you don't trust your GP and you should find another practise" Changing practise isn't really the best thing for a 6month pregnant woman! C'est la vie!

I think you should shoot the next lawyer you come across who provides substandard/dangerous advice re. bf

asur - you are absolutely right. I have found it impossible to change GP's in the part of North London I live in. If it had not been for a friend who was an expert bf-er (she had bf 2 sons), LLL and kellymom I would not have been able to bf for this length of time.

Asur...how far in pg were you when you got that med described that possibly could have caused Cleft palate...just wondering...as a cleft would happen in the beginning of pg when the face is formed, iykwim!
Not saying that the reply from your gp wasn't terrible...!

I was about 5months I think at the time. I thought the face was formed quite early in pg but according to the research that I read, the med could cause damage throughout all trimesters and only reasonably safe from around 36wks... weird... It could cause another defect too but I can't remember what it was.

Oh right, yeah it is more likely then that the other defect was the problem...
don't know much about when what is formed, the only reason I know is because I have a cleft lip/palate myself and therefore looked into it when I was pg with my boys!

The point is quite simply this, why must a health prof. feel they have to give advice about bf when they are not absolutely certain that the advice they are giving is based on any sort of research-based bf fact (as opposed to fiction) ?

I do not know of any other profession where this would be acceptable, and I find it appalling that many bf women seem to be turned off by bf (or have their bf undermined) by health profs.
many of whom recommend introducing formula at a drop of a hat.

Feeding a baby is not the same as a country-side picnic, it is a very serious public health matter. This is why I usually refer friends/relatives who ask me questions about bf to a leading bf advice org., such as LLL. Feeding babies is such an important issue that I just would not dare undermine any woman who is trying to bf.