Health visitors, are they all useless?

[1738hey]

In my experience and many others on here, health visitors know very little, a lot of what they do know is opinion based or old fashioned.
Mine actually told me completely incorrect information about the milk I decided to put my baby on and would've caused baby a lot of stress if I hadn't done my own research on Aptamil website then spoken to GP, so I don't have contact with her anymore.
Can I hear positive HV stories?
No offence to any HV's, perhaps more up to date training is needed? Or maybe I and a few others have just had very bad experiences and the majority know their stuff!

When you're lucky and have a good one they can be absolute gold, I've had several who were great with child health and my health, brilliant in a crisis and really supportive. Talking to other mums in my area though it's a real postcode lottery, and not everyone gets the same quality or support.

[quote MrsPatrickDempsey]@1738hey
Would be delighted!

Our service has obviously been hit by lockdown but I have been doing phone and video calls as much or as little as mum's want.
We are stretched beyond believe and our safeguarding cases often have to take priority at the drop of a hat.
But I can honestly say, where I am, we are still carrying out over 97% of the core healthy child program contacts.
It is unacceptable that there is disparity in the level of service provision.

At the end of the day, people don't always gel/get on/click. Advice should be evidence based and balanced so families make the decisions that's best for them. It's not about my agenda.
I get very upset when people feel they haven't been supported by their HV. [/quote]
It's good to know some earless are still having their regular checks and contact.

I myself am sadly in the useless camp. We were never contacted before I gave birthday and have only seen our health visitor once, when we first came home from hospital. My son is now 14 months old and we've had no other checks at all. In the beginning I would come tact her to ask questions. (Baby was in special milk, wasn't gaining weight, wasn't feeding/ sleeping) I never got a decent reply and was always told to speak to my gp instead. We've not had the 9-12 month review and if they do decide to contact at some point I think we'll decline it.

No, mine were excellent, kind and knowledgeable

Excellent post @Frenchsticks

My HV was useless, she offered no help or advice when I had pnd, my midwife had put a note in ds red book that I had really bad pnd & needed support when she handed us over to HV but the HV did nothing except belittle me & make me feel even worse. She also diagnosed ds with chicken pox when he actually had an allergy. Once he got to 6 months I stopped going to get him weighed & weighed him myself at home, I only saw her once more when she came to do his 2 year check up.

Mine was absolutely useless. Couldn't answer questions just quoted from the leaflet - eh yes, I've read the leaflet thanks but I'm asking for further info. She cd dictate what my baby needed but wasn't an expert. BF was the bees knees. I thought so too but after the second bout of mastitis I called for help permission to give up and she told me 1) the NCT were experts not her so ring them 2) breastfeeding mothers put their babies first and 2) bottle feeding mothers put themselves first .

I called her boss and asked exactly was the role of the hv and was told it was "to make sure mothers spoke to their babies enough for them to develop speech". The CEO of the Trust wrote a formal apology and confirmed it was a universal service that had statutorily to be offered but there was no statutory obligation to accept it.

Health visitors are nurses and they can become nurses in many cases with negligible secondary education topped up by access courses and NVQ. Most family doctors have 4 A Grade A'Levels at least and there is a significant difference in intellect.

I never bothered seeing an HV again. Waste of my time. Any concerns re my children I was capable of researching and going to GP for advice or referral to an appropriately qualified paediatrician or specialist doctor.

My HV also looked as though she coukd have done with a good wash and was late for a 9am visit.

I have had two children in UK, 4 years apart in age. Different health visitors for each. Each was fabulous

Mine was brilliant - she saw me once for about ten minutes then fucked off out of our lives, which was exactly what I wanted.

I've heard of a lot of useless HVs, offering daft advice and outstayimg their welcome.

Mine is ok. She comes round once a month to weigh my 6 month old twins / check in and see how we are doing. She is also very available over whatsapp in between. She has given some advice that I don’t agree with but couldn’t fault her availability.

I've 3 kids. With one child I never saw same one twice. With my first child I had a great hv. She saw I was ill, came out weekly to see me. She was amazing. She got me help I needed so much but never asked for. I'm not sure I would be here if she hadn't helped. I'm still sad that she left and I never got to thank her. I had another good hv who actually took time to see my past and ensured I was OK. But I have met some awful ones too. Luck of the draw I suppose. I just know I owe a lot to the first one I had

@BackforGood

You are being incredibly offensive to a whole profession (and no, I'm not a HV, nor related to any)

As you say in your last post you will get anomaly's in all professions and most will be lovely - so why be so rude in your title ?

HVs are incredibly overworked. They have ridiculous caseloads and can't possibly do their jobs in the way they would like to do, due to the horrific understaffing, plus jobs they can't fill even where the posts exist. I very much feel for the poor people who are trying their best, in awfully underfunded profession.

Because it's a service that hasn't been adequate. Like you'd complain about any other service that doesn't meet certain standards

Yes. In their own separate little ways.

@Frenchsticks the issue I have with your post is that hv's provide a universal service and if the service says they must promote bf and discourage ff then I hope you would agree they should know quite a lit about bf and if not they have no business naking new mothers feel like utter failures when it doesn't work.

Further women can check out the hospital where they deliver, check out the GP they register with, check out the profile and success rates of a surgeon their child may need. The HV service is universal and women have no say over the provider. In that case I am afraid I expect 100% excellence and if that is not possible 100% honesty. Neither my HV nor her boss could even tell me the role of this person who turned up on my doorstep at 9.15 (when I'd received a letter at 8.50 telling me she was coming at 9am). Therefore she had me cornered in my drawing room with my nightie riding up my legs. Presumably she did it for shits and giggles because no right minded professional would be arrogant enough to do that. Every question I had "Oh I don't know" I was actually told she expected me to go to the clinic to have the baby weighed and when I questioned why was not capable of saying it was optional.

That little baby is 25 now. Took a first in Classics and now doing a PhD yet her boss told me my hv's role was to a&e if I spoke to my baby enough for him to develop speech.

Needs to be a targetted service. In my experience it's a job creation scheme for nurses who want to work 9 to 5 and not get their hands dirty or think to hard about comes out of their mouths.

Never saw one once ds was 5 weeks old Dd's first 6 weeks were much better without an hv's visit.

Assess not A&E.

The ones I had were utterly useless.
They didn’t seem to know anything of value and talked about themselves rather than me.
My mother was one. She was absolutely hopeless in helping or supporting me . I can’t imagine she was any good with her clients either.

They ruined my first few days with their visits. I was petrified that if they saw a speck of dust or if I wasn't nicely dressed, they'd think I couldn't cope...so instead of relaxing with my new babies, I was dusting the windowsill and putting on make up.

My hv with dd was amazing.

I moved areas and got another one and she was shit.

I've had loads.m, in my current area it's changed every visit without fail. Pretty much all crap.

I did have one amazingly lovely, supportive one where I used to live, with my first DC, but she was moved on too and I had a different one afterwards. The advice they give is random and inconsistent generally, anecdotally.

I've only seen my HV twice in 14 months, the last time was before lockdown. She was friendly and obviously experienced but I didn't feel like I got alot from her visits.

A different HV rang me during lockdown to check on DCs development, it was a quick phone call and it felt abit like we were just ticking boxes.

The nurse at my local gp used to be a midwife, she is fantastic, really personable. I have seen her a few times now and she has done all of DCs immunisations. I ask her lots of questions as feel more comfortable with her.

My HV is old fashioned but I rarely see her so I put up with it . She’s given me some decent advice as well .

The first time I met her my DS was 10 days old and I was nursing him . He fell asleep on the boob and she gave me a proper lecture on never doing that . My baby was a NEWBORN, all he ever did was nurse and sleep ! Geez 🙄!

Anyway , her advice wasn’t horrible but nursing to sleep is natural, normal and completely harmless . She made me feel terrible for allowing it and that upset me for weeks after .

The HV I had in my old area was wonderful, very clever, previously specialist nurse, funny, kind. We saw her twice but enjoyed both experiences.

I’ve moved areas in London and don’t have a named HV anymore but can call the team on a line 9-5 everyday and the HV I met pre-lockdown was very nice. Didn’t have a one year check but when I called the line with a concern they organised an appointment for my son with a specialist.

Honestly I think it’s a tough job and I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t do it with grace. I think we are very lucky to have HVs

My one was alright. No complaints.

However, the service completely dried up over Covid. DD is nearly 14 months old and still hasn't had her 9-12 month review. I phoned a week or so after her 1st birthday to see if it was still going ahead. I was told I'd be sent a letter with the time and date in a few weeks. I'm still waiting. No-one else in my NCT group (all babies 12 months+ now) has had theirs either. Just going to assume it's yet another aspect of care that's been deemed unnecessary, so has fallen by the wayside.

Mine was dreadful. Completely out of date training, borderline dangerous, and as other pp said, just box ticking job. Anyone could have done the job with the leaflet and a pen. This sounds very rude I know, but I just don’t see the point in that role.

@OhTheRoses

Mine was absolutely useless. Couldn't answer questions just quoted from the leaflet - eh yes, I've read the leaflet thanks but I'm asking for further info. She cd dictate what my baby needed but wasn't an expert. BF was the bees knees. I thought so too but after the second bout of mastitis I called for help permission to give up and she told me 1) the NCT were experts not her so ring them 2) breastfeeding mothers put their babies first and 2) bottle feeding mothers put themselves first .

I called her boss and asked exactly was the role of the hv and was told it was "to make sure mothers spoke to their babies enough for them to develop speech". The CEO of the Trust wrote a formal apology and confirmed it was a universal service that had statutorily to be offered but there was no statutory obligation to accept it.

Health visitors are nurses and they can become nurses in many cases with negligible secondary education topped up by access courses and NVQ. Most family doctors have 4 A Grade A'Levels at least and there is a significant difference in intellect.

I never bothered seeing an HV again. Waste of my time. Any concerns re my children I was capable of researching and going to GP for advice or referral to an appropriately qualified paediatrician or specialist doctor.

My HV also looked as though she coukd have done with a good wash and was late for a 9am visit.

This is incorrect actually- nurses have to gain a BSc Hons degree know to join the NMC register and if they decided to train as a HV then they do an additional years course

Also tbh I find the whole thing quite intrusive. I’m not British, and I couldn’t understand why I had to put up with it on top of all the new mum stress.