after birth, do i have to have the midwife/ health visitor in the house?

[morethanithot]

pregnant with second baby, hopefully due soon. thing is i didn't have a good experience with midwives/ health visitors last time, so am very reluctant to allow them to visit me at home. can i stipulate this?
surely there can't be a law that says that i have to allow them into the house? i'm thinking of arranging appointments at the surgery instead.
any experiences/ views welcome please

thanks every one, last 2 posts hit the nail bang on the head. thanks v much. i had started to wonder if i was overreacting or sthg.
i do take the point abt the unfortunate baby P fall out, so for peace and quietness, will allow first visit and see how we go.
thanks v much for all the support, and the time taken to answer the question too, it's much appreciated.
i have to say, this website and the book saved my sanity after the first baby.

If you don't want lots of hv and mw involvement then keep a low profile and cooperate when they want to do home visits. Smile sweety and be polite and they will leave you alone.

Morethan it hot.

I'm so glad I've been able to help and that you feel better

I understand this. I had a horrible midwife with one of my babies. HV was nice though. I entirely agree that you shouldn't be bullied into any kind of medical exam or procedure you're unhappy with. I still dwell on one particular intervention that happened with dc1 eight years ago!

Very different story here in the US. I didn't see anyone except my indie midwife until I took dc3 to the doctor at 6 months to check on something. I was quite happy with that.

I'm somewhat surprised by all the people saying that when you have a baby (in this case, a second baby) you need to have your house checked by a professional.

Surely the HV is offering a service to help you - they're not there to police you? If this is true, then you have a perfect right to opt out.

Health visitors DO provide a valuable service to those who want and need it. I'm talking about people who are happy they know what they're doing, know where to get help if they do need it and have made an informed choice to opt out.

I'm not underplaying the fact that child abuse or neglect happens, but do we really think that everyone having a baby must submit to a house check? Even if they already have children? I really don't understand this 'detect life threatening problems' - yes, health checks at home may pick up on some problems, but if there aren't any existing risk factors, this seems like absolute overkill and an infringement of privacy. You can't treat everyone like a criminal just because doing so might stop one crime.

Many hospitals now have postnatal clinics where you can see a mw in a surgery or the actual hospital, mainly for women who want to know the time so that they don't have to wait in not knowing when the mw is going to come but also of course funding as a mw can see more women in one day if they all come to her.

The thing about checking someones house is not really an issue, as long as the woman consents to having the baby checked postnatally it should not ring alarm bells as such (although they might be concerned about you if you refused to be checked). In the area I work in the mw's would be more than happy not to see you at home as they have such a heavy workload and would far rather you said than just didn't answer the door leading to them having to chase you up to check that you are ok.

Also if you don't want a certain examination just politely decline, if she pushes the issue, be slightly less polite, she will get the message soon enough.