Opinions on health visitors please!

[weesaidie]

Hello

My mum works in management in NHS and used to be a (fantastic!) health visitor... she wanted me to ask for mumsnets views and experiences, good and bad, of health visitors. So they can work on the system...

So. EVERYONE, please... Tell me what they do right, what they do wrong, personal experiences and so forth. What could be changed/improved?

Thanks very much.

Have had 2 HV. First one would never allow through the door again, sits on edge of chair nodding, saying mmm every few seconds.Text book advice, totally missed PND. Told my friend who is Polish and whose son was a late speaker as he was learning 2 languages that she was damaging his development and to only speak English to him and told another teeny friend that her healthy, strong, energetic 2.5 year old was failing to thrive because she is light as a feather. (mum is 5ft 2 and weighs under 8 stone)

2nd one (refused to see 1st one when preg with dd ) Out of this world. Visits whenever you need her to, calls to check up without interfering, cares about the whole family. Offers relevant, research based advice. Sadly she is retiring early in Dec as she feels her caseload and the amount of time she can offer women is untenable. Sad loss to the Health service

In our area they only phone or write now to see if you have any concerns. Otherwise you only get one PN visit, then have to trudge to clinic and no 18 mo, pre-school etc check, They need more training and more flexibilty on how much they visit women. They shouldn't just be for emergencies and in child protection case which is the way it's going here.

My HV, is the most wonderful person in the world. He remebers everything about me and my family, has never been condenscending, supported me throughout PND, still asks about DD, although she has not been in his care for over 2 years.

I was in the Dr's surgery discussimg coming off of AD's with the GP, and when I came out of the office, he was in reception, and I was so excited about being drug free, I went bouncing up to him, and he gave me a wee hug.

To sum him up, he doesn't just care about the child he is looking after, he cares about the whole family.

He asks about the kids, or speaks to them when we see him in the town.

And I would put money on him remembering the kids names in 10 years. And my kids are totally normal. In fact DS hasn't seen him since the last Health check.

ST (won't name him on the internet) is a great HV

Oh, and rang 2 days after DS had been in hospital after a first peanut allergy, to ask if I needed anything, and to tell me that the consultant thought that I was a really grounded mum.

Which I thought was really nice, (not the fact that he phned - the fact that he passed on the compliment at a time when I obvioulsy felt like a bit of a s**e mom).

like a lot of you my HV said nothing i couldnt have read for myself in a VERY basic baby book. She seemed not to want to give advice - just to spout the "party line" Saying that, i havent seen her since ds2 was 8 months and am unlikely to as they keep sending letters at all the development milestones saying "due to different priorities blah blah blah - we no longer carry this check out routinely, here's a checklist and if you have any worries make an appointment" Luckily, i have no concerns about either of my boys but it would be nice to chat through how they are doing - i don't feel like they would welcome seeing me just for a "chat" - far too busy dealing with junkies and losers.

Mine was awful. DD had allergic reaction to egg at 10 months, I was 2 mins from GP so ran there with her. HV told me I needed an appointment until I screamed at her about anaphalactic shock. 10 mins later we were in an ambulance. Was some years ago so maybe things have got better.

mummydear- my HV didn't even know about the NCT breastfeeding counsellor until I told her....

My HV was brilliant. She lived in the real world and understood about real life with cracked nipples, screaming toddlers and school runs. She had children of her own and knew what it was like. She was not judgemental and offered suggestions of how to cope with different issues. Unfortunately, she has just retired. Lets hope the new one can fill her shoes, I am yet to meet her!

Terrible first HV. Won't bother seeing them when second child is born.

Had complications with birth and b/f which hospital and community midwife (visiting for first 10 days after birth) knew about. I suspect they didn't pass it on to the HV but she didn't pick up anything wrong when I tried to talk to her on her one and only visit around day 12 after birth. She just handed over red book and told me to visit the clinic. I didn't visit for first 4 months due to various problems. Luckily excellent GP looked after me but HV never followed up first visit or checked to see why I had never turned up at the centre (or more importantly why they never saw my baby who at the time of HV's visit had lost too much weight after birth).

HVs said they were too busy to run any one-off classes for new Mums on things like weaning (which I now know other clinics in the area did as standard). Indeed, I know they turned down the offer of one experienced mum who volunteered to hold classes and get-togethers. When I asked about weaning, HV wrote down the name of Annabelle Karmel and said all info. was in that.

Rubbish advice on MMR. No follow-up to point raised (by HV) at 2 year check about possible short-sightedness.

Generally rubbish all round. Wouldn't bother with HVs now and would advise other people to go to GP/old hospital birth centre/mumsnet/books to get advice. They couldn't be worse than the HV. I still find it hard to believe people get paid for doing the job I saw my local HVs do.

mine is never around!! as she either on holidays or sick!!? ive only seen her 3 times (my baba is 13 mths old)

The first piece of advice my hv gave me was to autoritively tell me to top dd with formula because she was under still 7.5% under birthweight at 2 weeks and I was suffering from flu. Nothing else. Well I stuck to my boobs with the help of MN and dd is still exclusively b/f at 7 mos minus odd bits of fruit and whatever she snaggles from my plate.

I taught her something about bf I suppose as I haven't seen her since dd was about 10 - 12 wks old.

I don't trust hv's now because of my experience with this one. I am sure there are good ones out there but fearful of meeting another one as rubbish as this one.

My hv is just fantastic. She runs a toddler group in our village once a week and has been really supportive to me since I had dd2 (no 3) and to all the other mums in the village. She is a great listener and has always offered to see me at home where possible, recognising that it is tricky getting three under three to a surgery and then to keep all entertained! I can't praise her enough. She is renowned for being the best hv in our area and I am very very lucky!!!!

I had a terrible HV... got the dates wrong for my bubba and told me she was obese and off the chart! Me, being sleep deprive thought she was right and went home crying from the weigh in. Realised when I got home that she had calculated wrong, by a month and my daughter was perfectly fine!!! Rang her up and gave her a mouthful and haven't been there since. From now on if i've any probs I see the nurse. She is lovely and knows the HV is awful too.

Tommy - Outragious that Hv wasn't aware of bf organisations !

Had 4 H/Vs in 6.5 yrs.
H/Vs 1 and 2. H/V 1 was OK, could be a bit smarmy and H/V 2 was really nice. The reason why I have bad memories of them though was what they did with DD1. She was was b/f then weaned at 3-4 mths. After putting on weight normally, her weight gain slowed. At her 9mth dev. check they did her weight/height and found that they were in proportion but both were under what they should have been for her age. Rather than listen to me saying that her appetite was fine, I wasn't worried about her, that she came from a family of short people (DH and I are around 5'2 and so is his family) so she wasn't going to be exactly a giant anyway etc, I ended up seeing the GP and then being referred to the hospital where they did blood (and getting that was horrible in itself) and urine tests. We ended up going for another 2 appts and each time they found that she was growing/putting on weight. At the last appt. the Dr said did I want another appt or to be discharged to which I told him that I wanted DD1 to be discharged and that I'd never been worried about her weight in the first place! They never did find anything wrong, but I could have told them that anyway! It just got to me that nobody ever listened to us when we said that we weren't worried about her height/weight, it was only the HVs getting their knickers in a twist about it and I later read in one of the booklets that the Drs/HVs give out that B/f babies often lose weight at the end of their 1st year anyway!

HVs 3&4. With DD1, H/V 3 did refer her at her pre-school check to an optician because her eyesight didn't seem very good so DD1 now wears glasses. Haven't seen them with DD2 since she was 13mths old for her MMR (she's now 2.11mths). They used to send out cards for dev. checks but don't seem to do that anymore so it looks like I'll have to make an appt. I've also avoided taking DD2 for weight checks because of everything that happened with DD1, so I've no idea how much DD2 weighs and haven't had her weighed since she was 9mths old.

I call my Health Visitor "Barmy Barbara, Mad as Badgers"!! Need I say more!!? Most of the time she can't even remember my DD1's name and she's been her HV for 18 months!! DD2 has completely thrown her - she can't stop asking how my "little boy" is!! GRRRRRR!! Anyone else have a "Mad as Badgers" HV!!!!?

think I'm now onto HV no. 7 in 20 months!! last time I called (to chase an eye appointment for DS) apparently I didn't actually have an HV as the last one had left and they hadn't appointed a new one yet! god knows what morale levels are like, with HVs leaving/swapping around the locale constantly!

petunia, I had a similar experience with my dd, which I have posted about on another thread, but she was referred back to hospital but by the community midwife at 14 days old because of "poor weight gain and prolonged jaundice". The whole experience was awful- from initially sending us to A&E with a newborn, to taking the blood and urine samples. Poor dd had to lie with no nappy for +2hrs whilst we hopefully hovered with a pot to catch it, then the lab claimed never to have received it! Blood was awful, I was crying and felt like asking if they had actually qualified as Drs it took them so long and they made such a mess of it. Dd cried so much she burst all the blood vessels in her eye lids and was still sobbing in her sleep hours later

My HV can't remember anyones name, she refers to me and my two children by a random assortment of unrelated names.

She has seen ds1 three times and each time she has spent almost the whole time going on about his birthmark. It is about the size of a golf ball on his chin and bright red so I had noticed it before she mentioned it . I explained on the first occasion that he has seen the dermatologist and he said that surgery to remove the birthmark would be life threatening at this stage. She is still of the opinion that it would be better to operate than for him to go around with a facial disfigurement. cow.

Thanks again all. Have been reading with interest...

It seems so far that to improve-

HVs need to keep up with new health info
To encourage late weaning
To be trained breastfeeding counsellors or at least be able to pass the mother on to someone who is trained.
To provide more support, ie clinics and home visits...
NOT to patronise
To actually care!

I know, of course, that lots can do the above but just for those that don't!

And thanks also for all the nice stories!

My HV was absolutely fantastic - I saw her last week after not seeing her for 6 months and she remembered loads of stuff about me like my relationships with various people -my dad, dds absent father, boyfriend -remembered their names and loads of small details(she coucilled me through PND, so heard a lot of stuff) I felt so good after talking to her cause it really felt like she cared. She has respected my decisions when I made up my mind (one of the few people who didnt put pressure on me when I felt I could no longer breastfeed after only a few weeks), and assisted me in making the right decision when I wasnt sure, by getting me loads of info, and putting me in touch with other professionals. And took interest in decisions such as using cloth nappies and asked that I get her more info so she could pass it on to other interested parents. She was my HV when I was a baby and she told me how she remembered sitting in my mums back garden beside the cherry blossom tree having coffee (that was 20 years ago!) Shes a superwoman!

This is good reading for a HV. What about getting this in print somewhere.

My hv is awaesome. She cam round loads when I was depressed, referred me to all sorts of other helpful places/people, as I know she did for my friend who was struggling a lot as a single mum - she sorted out a free nursery place for her to have a break/look for work. She is really smiley, with lots of smile-lines to show for it, and a really expressive face which babies love - I realised when I was looking for a childminder that I basically wanted her double!

I moved house 6 months ago and the surgery is 1 1/2 miles away which makes me feel it's too much effort to go when I'm feeling ill! But I don't want to move cos hv is so great!

Good things:

• listen. if ness ask questions to check you've understood what person is really saying.
• know who to refer people to if they have particular needs/concerns, and how to get round the system where ness so you can speed things up for the most needy
• reassure that mother is doing okay. most areas you give advice on aren't that black and white, so it's more important to let the mother know they can trust their instinct, not need "professional" advice
• tell the parents they are doing fine, and not to feel guilty about taking short-cuts (especially first time mums, I guess)
• offer to hold the baby/maybe change them/play a bit if they come round when you are desperate!
• tell you no question is too stupid

only bad thing I've had is where she put something confidential down on a referal form - I know sometimes they have to reveal things eg if it's child abuse/risk of. But otherwise they should check what you want shared, and warn you if they won't be able to keep something confidential.

aragon - do you mind if I ask if it is normal to have 7 HVs in less than 2 years, or does it mean something weird is going on in my area?

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