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Original poster

Health Visitors - For or Against??

34 replies

loopylou0612 · 03/10/2006 01:52

I have read on here many threads associated with HVs and wondered what the general feeling was regarding them?

Our HV is brilliant, I have to say. She doesn't try to influence our parenting style at all and is generally quite supportive of our decisions. Whenever dd was taken to hospital (chronic reflux resulting in her turning blue) she always called or popped round to make sure dd was ok and to see how we were getting on.

Would be interested to see what other's think.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Alibaldi · 03/10/2006 03:54

I had a brilliant HV when living in North Lanarkshire. She was really supportive and full of useful advice. In Fife, they were friendly but not very helpful at all, but by then was on to ds2 and sort of had an idea as to what I was doing .

rubles · 03/10/2006 06:00

Utterly, utterly hopeless. More hindrance than help in the early weeks for me. Should I ever be blessed with another baby I will be declining their services and assistance.

belgo · 03/10/2006 06:23

I have a great HV who's given me loads of good advice with DD1 who is going through the really terrible twos. The worst advice I've ever heard was a HV telling a new mum (in a very sympathetic voice) that she was breastfeeding her two week old baby too much because he had put on a pound of weight in a week! It makes me so angry to think about it.

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eidsvold · 03/10/2006 06:51

for great HV's - not for poor HV's.

earlgrey · 03/10/2006 07:02

They're good for weighing your baby.

My two are 14 months apart, and I had real problems b/feeding dd2. She said, and I quote 'You can't possibly have the time to b/f dd2 with another one so young around'.

And my mum was there, and said, thankfully, 'She does'.

Later that week dd2 (8weeks at that time) was admitted to hospital with bronchiolitus.

Some of them may be good, but this one certainly wasn't.

blackCATsandbroomsticksJ · 03/10/2006 07:17

Thankfully I have a absolutely brilliant HV. She happened to be there when dd4 was taken ill with her heart condition and phoned the hospital regularly for updates (even calling from home on Good Friday because she'd been away on holiday). She's made an effort to find out about chlildren with heart problems and best of all she's the mother of twin girls too so she knows exactly what it's like for me

Ironically she's not the HV who was allocated to me (our surgery has two) but because she was there when dd4 was ill she seems to have taken us on. I am so pleased about that because I was actually trying to avoid the other one!!

lulunaticmama · 03/10/2006 07:20

have had one terrible one who missed by PND .

have a fabulous one who i lurve........she could not do more for me or my family... an absolute gem....

seems HVs are terrible or amazing with little in between..that's the problem.

pablopatito · 03/10/2006 09:13

The biggest problem we had was that the day DS was born our HV went on a 2 week holiday. Over the next two weeks we were visited by four different HVs. The problem was all four seem to completely contradict each other, so we were getting so much conflicting advice the whole experience was a nightmare.

The only worthwhile thing we learnt from so much contradictory advice is that there isn't really any "correct" advice so you may as well just do what you want and ignore everybody.

prairiemuffin · 03/10/2006 09:32

Our HV atm is quite good. The last one was a harpy who thought that Dh was beating me and wouldn't let me out of the house or something. Was very glad to get shot of her, that's for sure.

They can be a real blessing, but they can also be a right royal pain in the behind.

ScareyCaligulaCorday · 03/10/2006 09:37

I had a brilliant one who was a trained breastfeeding counsellor and without her I wouldn't have breastfed my DS.

I had a bog-standard one who knew nothing about how to support a bf mother and I gave up bf my DD after 2 weeks. But I'd learned from the brilliant one not to stress about weight etc.

Socci · 03/10/2006 09:38

Message withdrawn

hunkermunster · 03/10/2006 09:43

Great ones are worth their weight in gold.

Bad ones do more harm than good.

anniediv · 03/10/2006 09:49

I had 2 brilliant ones where I lived before, spotted PND and pulled out all the stops to get help for me. Where I live now they are rubbish.

Did anyone see the HV on Eastenders last night?!

Peridot30 · 03/10/2006 10:58

I have not seen a hv since my daughter was a newborn as surgery short staffed.dd now 2.11!

iamapieceofcheesecake · 03/10/2006 11:16

Had a brilliant HV with ds until we had to swap doctors. She phoned us up once after we had made a dash to a&e with him to make sure everything was ok. I just seemed to really trust her and get on well with her, she remebers us even now.
She just seemed to give the best advice of everyone I had spoken to.
Oh, I miss her....

trinityrhino · 03/10/2006 11:20

My health visitor is amzing, she is kind and caring. She allows me to make decisions without judging, shows me options wihtout making me feel forced. She became my HV whne we moved to scotland when my dd1 was 2 and a half and has been wonderful ever since. She has wonderfully cared for and reassured me about dd1 then dd2 and is going to be just as amaziong with dc3. I totally agree that a good HV is worth their wieght in gold but a bad one is detrimental. I wished that everyone had one like mine, couldn't fault her in any way. I feel sad when I read of the horrid and unsupportive HV's you so often hear about on here.

misdee · 03/10/2006 11:24

i am going to see our HV tomorrow afetrnoon with dd3. i think dd3 has lost some weight, or hasnt gained i na while. she is so skinny. she has never had an ounce of flab on her.

our old HV was really good. but dont know what this one is like. i really dont fancy going over family history again with them all.

jessicaandrebeccasmummy · 03/10/2006 11:27

The one i had when Jessi was a baby was FAN BLOODY TASTIC the one here - SHITE.

I have seen her 3 times in 18 months and my word she gets my back up every time.

I get what info i need from here..... was almost tempted to make an appointment to talk to her about Jess's eating issues but posted on here and got some fab reassurance!

Original poster

loopylou0612 · 03/10/2006 12:14

So, generally a mixed response! Personally, I haven't really experienced a dodgy HV. I've been allocated 3 since dd was born and all of them have been pretty good. We went to see ours last week about dd's tantrums and behaviour and she was so reassuring about it, without using the phrase 'terrible twos', which tends to really get my back up!

OP posts:

asur · 03/10/2006 19:03

Mine is absolutely awful.. First time she came to my house to introduce herself, she called me by the wrong name TWICE! Put me off her straight away.. She then proceded to tell me a whole load of rubbish that wasn't relevant and didn't listen to anything I said - it's like she has stuff she wants to say and she'll say it no matter what...

Have seen her 3 times since and that's only to get DS his vaccinations... Completely useless!

Anniediv - yes, that HV on Eastenders was priceless... I did wonder if the writers got their ideas on HV's from MN! LOL

QuootieSpookypie · 03/10/2006 19:06

my HV is great getting a new one though but haven't met her

TwigTwoolett · 03/10/2006 19:07

AGAINST

BethAndHerBrood · 03/10/2006 20:14

AGAINST AGAINST AGAINST

GooseyLoosey · 03/10/2006 20:22

Fairly neutral. My HV was nice but not only failed to notice pnd but was obsessed about how dh (who looked after ds for 1 day a week) was coping. Never thought to ask how I was coping for the other 6. When I told her I had no idea how dh coped and didn't really care, she told me I really needed to support him more. Grrrr!

FillyjonkthePumpkinEater · 03/10/2006 20:24

well generally good but

in two children I have never once been assessed for pnd

which I think is an issue.

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