what are your views on health visitors

[honeydew]

I have a pretty poor view of health visitors and wondering what others think. The two I've had have both been absolutely useless! They never followed up after the initial visits to my home directly after the birth of each of my children. They don't seem ever be easily available or provide any good advice that you couldn't get from family, friends, a doctor, health/parenting book or the internet. My health visitor last week phoned my husband's mobile twice and left a message she was "desperate" to contact me so that I could arrange for my baby to have her 12 month check. This was the first time I'd heard from her in a year! As an experienced mother, I just have the impression now that health visitors are there simply to check up on you! Does anyone else feel the same way or have you had more positive experiences?

Mine was lovely - very supportive and held my hand as I cried over bf problems and spent a lot of time with me trying to put things right and getting me in touch with the other support.
She never once told me to switch to formula and when I did through my own choice she was supportive of that as well. I felt she gave me time, information and the support I needed to make my own decisions through an incredibly difficult and heartbreaking time.
She has had very good bf training from the hospital support group who have an amazing bf councillor who I saw. However (and I am not trying to be controversial here) she did say that she was quite shocked when she was given no training in how to deal with mums who tried and tried to bf and who were depserate to do it but for whatever reason were unable to. She felt this was met with disbelief that someone couldn't bf.
I would look forward to her visits in those early days and she was always tere on the other end of the phone if I had a stupid question to ask.

Mine are/were a waste of time. SO I'm slightly with BB on here but I also think that there are some people for whom having a baby is really hard so they might be useful for them (not saying bad parents just finding that bit hard)
I don't really understand why half of you on here bother going to see them TBH (I know occasionally they catch you but you don't have to see them)Aitch health visitors will be paid according to agenda for change I think probably around band 5/6/7 should be easy to find with a bit of googling!

Actually what's surprising on here (in a good way) is how many had good health visitors

you're back

My usual one is lovely - she helped me get my PND diagnosis, and dropped round for extra checks to make sure my DS and I were OK. She was totally supportive of BLW and breastfeeding, never put any pressure on me to give bottles etc when things were a bit difficult.

My new one (usual one has moved practices) thinks it's marvellous that I am still BFing my 8mo baby, as she fed her DC until she was 15mo

I am a health visitor and I am very to read all these comments. Very often our hands are tied with red tape, management commitments and the amount of child protection work we have to do. If mum's do feel so strongly then I suggest that you talk to your health visitor. We are professional enough to be able to take criticism and are more than happy to work with families. The government are cutting the health visiting service more and more which leaves us with less numbers to help you mums as we would like. Give us a break!I too am a mum and have seen it from both sides. Its tough being a mum and a health visitor!

His visits were a waste of both our time. Learnt nothing I hadn't already found out here! But as long as he ticked his sheets, no harm done.

I'd like to see what my new hv will be like now I know what i'm talking about.
Mine have always been really wishy washy.
TBH I think quite badly of them but I expect thats because its the bad stories you hear not the good.

should change the title of this thread to health visitors - what do they do all day?

no positive experiences here Im afraid and the worse example I ever saw was a friend of mine with her 6 month old Downs baby in cardiac failure who ran in upset to clininc as she had just broken her breast pump ( baby too breathless to feed) asking for help and the woman just REFUSED!!!!

My first HV with DS was awful. Was very unsupportive of my BFing problems and was of the latch him for me and run school of HVing. She was not helpful when I gave up at five weeks, nor suggested there were other avenues of help I could explore. When I was diagnosed with PND when DS was seven months old she said "I could see that coming a mile off", but not once had she made an effort to discuss it with me

The second one after we moved when DS was six months was lovely. Helpful and supportive of my PND, and not hung up on developmental goals.

The team that I have now of four different HVs, and a mental health nurse are very good. Two in particular (one of whom I'm actually registered to) are great. Also not hung up on goals etc and good on BFing support (well up to six months anyway; not too great beyond that) adn any mental health issues. As a seciond time mum though they tend to leave you alone to get on with it a bit more, unless you ask for help.

I've had about 4 HVs. The first one who came to see me was great, a bit bonkers but in a nice way. She listened to me rant and rave in the way only a sleep deprived parent can about how DS was difficult to settle. The next one who overlapped with the first was a bit dour and unhelpful esp when she said DS wasn't putting on much weight (Me and DH are both 5'5" so hardly giants)
The third one I saw was the same as my MiL had with DH! DH remembers her giving sex education talks at school (her advice for those unexpected magic moments was to pull a jumper over it!) She is crackers but lovely and has common sense!
The last one to appear called me a hippy for using camomile tea on nappy rash.
I never go to the clinic apart, just for DS to get jabs.

I was a single and first time mum.
Mine were wonderful - the first one I saw after birth of ds was incredibly glamourous - the thought of her seeing me unbathed and in my grotty dressing gown sure got me out of bed and brushed and dressed before she was due! But she was wonderful - very approachable and I totally trusted her advice in the early days - after much 2 way discussion and questioning. She left to go into teaching - I was gutted but really happy for her and glad the last time I'd seen her I'd given her a nice Christmas present to show our gratitude.

She was replaced by another wonderful lady so when I hear of some parents' disappointments and bad experiences with their hvs I feel really sorry for them and very lucky and grateful for mine. As my son grew older I did see her less and less as no need for the constant weighing in sessions etc. I did however, on the advice of my gp, contact her again during a particularly hairy bout of depression especially due to 3 year old's refusal to go to bed. Again she was wonderful - visiting me for weeks helping me to talk things through and helping me see ds as a confused and misplaced (we'd recently moved house) little boy again rather than a absolutely ingeniously manipulative monster whose sole intention was to drive me insane.

So in a nut-shell - MARVELLOUS

what has suprised me is how inflexible and ignorant the ones I have come across have been when it comes to alternative/different ways of doing things such as co-sleeping, extended bf etc Surely they read books on the topic as its their profession? IME 1 HV = 10 MILs

I also know of several friends who have been threatened with SS, tow after their babies fell off the changing table and they took them to A&E were told next time SS might take the baby away from you. I have many friends who are GPs and they always tell funny anecdotes about funny things the HVs have done. Not funny really, but my feeling is they are not looked upon as very knowledgeable.

My HV was absolutely bloody fantastic. She gave great support and advice re: bf and weaning, her advice was ahead of the then current "official" government advice. (Have just looked in DD2's yellow book as she is due her MMR booster, and noticed that the page on introducing solids says to start at 4 months ) I had loads of problems post natally - birth trauma, pnd, possible genetic thing with DD1, eczema etc. and I found my GPs to be generally useless and unsympathetic, but my HV was wonderful. She just came round, every week, for months. She badgered the hospital on my behalf and was furious when some twat of a doctor wouldn't speak to her because "we only speak to doctors" . She (almost literally) saved my life and I will always be grateful. Whatever she earned, it wasn't enough imo, but the "practice manager" at the GPs kept telling her she was "too expensive" - she was moved around to different areas, and in the end, left HVing.

I'm glad for disillusioned1 (the HV) that there are so many positive comments, to balance the thoughtful and lengthy 'they are fucking shite'. It's so easy to slag off an entire profession, without any thought about pay / conditions / other pressures, or whatever. As a teacher, I hear my profession getting slagged off A LOT by people who don't know much about it, but who think they do. It's incredibly demotivating.

What does pay/conditions/other pressures got to do with giving ignorant advice? Just google MN and you will find so many horror stories about HV you'd think some were urban myths. I find them terrifying.

Have to agree with fairymum, what's so hard about saying 'you know what I don't know that much about Bfing so here are the numbers for the BF helplines'??
It's the HV's that spout rubbish that give other Hv's a bad name, that has nothing to do with pay or conditions.
Pay and conditions do not make you pluck random bollocks out of the air and peddle it to a worried and inexperienced new mum. That's just ignorance/laziness and sometimes, I'd imagine, ego.

I?ve not yet used HV and won?t likely as I?ll be going home to give birth. I don?t doubt there are some kick ass HV?s out there,butit?s not surprising there are so many bad experiences . The whole of the health care system in England is half assed. When I went for my pap and asked ?aren?t you going to do a breast exam?? the nurse didn?t even look at me, just a huff and ?we don?t do that.? I went to my doctor to discuss getting pregnant and wanted a check-up. She told me I should really think about having children at my age?35, and the likelihood of getting pregnant after being on the pill for so long didn?t seem promising. WTF kind of help is that. Love London but can?t wait to get home. Alternative health care is covered on provincial government: chiropractic, acupuncture, physiotherapy, home births.

4

PARP

My HV has been great. First time mum, with no other family to ask for support. ds had difficult time after birth and I had bad baby blues for weeks. She was happy to just sit and talk and reassure me that I was doing a good job and point me in the right direction for bf support (although she didn't know what to do about ds's tongue tie).

I take the point about ignorant advice when it should be easy for an HV to say that they don't know, but refer you onto the person who does know.

There do seem to be some pretty dreadful tales on here - I just do still feel that it's easy to slag off!!! And to be anecdotal more about the horror stories, than the less- entertaining times when everything went well, and the advice was fine...

As a HV I'm surprised to see so many positive comments. The HV service is fading fast. Managers have decided they're too expensive and are employing lesser qualified staff. My workload has drastically increased over the past 3 years, I've got a caseload of 650 children under 5, scattered over a wide area. Home visits take up time which I haven't got although am trying to keep up with the new birth visits. I can only visit once and then have to hand over to a nursery nurse or support worker who I know hasn't had any kind of training in infant feeding, parenting or how to help mothers with post natal depression.
I spend most of my time on child protection which has to take priority over everything else, social sevices are desperately short staffed so no help there. There's been a huge increase in parents with mental health problems and everyone is very aware of recent child death cases where HVs and social workers have been blamed. So we have to make sure we dot the i's and cross the t's and do our best to avoid being scapegoated when a disaster happens.