What happens on health visitor first visit?

[Sarahjsxx]

Hello,
Just had my 3rd baby, today we had day 10 midwife check, we have one more this week on day 14 as baby has very slight jaundice or would have been discharged today
The midwife today asked if i had heard from the health visitor for an appointment and I hadn't so she said she will contact them. What happens on a first appointment? I seem to recall having to visit them in clinic previously, just wondering what the purpose is after so many home visits from my midwife already? X

Hi
they visit in your home to basically make sure you’re coping, weigh baby etc. I actually said to mine I think it’s a waste of services seeing everyone when they could actually just use the time to support women who have already been identified as needing the help. They also talk for ages about breastfeeding which again I found pointless as I was already BF with no issues. I think they are supposed to look at where baby is sleeping too but mine didn’t do this

the health visitor takes over from the midwife until your child starts school so it’s basically meant to be be an introductory/transition visit and then usually just have 6 week, 1 year and 2 and a half year routine appointments with them at a clinic after. Although available if need them to visit/see/call if needed in between. I suppose like GPs etc, if your very fortunate not to have any issues then you don’t see them much past the new patient check but they do provide alot of help to people who do need them. They often have attached teams e.g. infant feeding for mums having on going feeding difficulties, mine got the ball rolling when I had developmental concerns etc

Okay, thank you for your replies! I got a voicemail today to say she is coming 10am tomorrow but I called to cancel it, I tried to basically say I don't really need an appointment but she insisted pencilling me in for Monday, which I also don't really need/ want, any ideas how to cancel it?

I'd have the first appointment and see if it's useful. My HV was worse than useless but friends have had much better experiences. Sometimes they signpost to things you might not be aware of like local groups.

The first visit for us was weigh baby, lecture on breastfeeding, worked way through list of baby safety, safe sleeping type stuff and run through of vaccination schedule.

With my third she only came once as I said that I didn't need any further support. It was useful though as it gave me a chance to chat about my new baby, she got weighed and she was able to signpost places that may have been useful if required in the future.