HV visit during pregnancy?

[Littlebean13]

I'm currently 35weeks pg with my first dc and today I got a letter throught the post from a health visitor saying she will be coming to visit me at home next week.
It says the purpose of the visit is to meet her, get baby's red book and to do a safe sleep assessment where she will check where baby will be sleeping during the day and at night.
I'm aware that this is normal protocol for our area but I'm still worrying a little about the visit. Has anyone had a visit from a hv before baby was born and if so how did it go?

my hv was a godsend as an anxious ftm last time and i needed and looked forward to her visits. i had lots of questions and worries and always was professional and non judgemental. i am hoping for the same one this time tho probably wont need her as much. As a ftm they can be invaluable x

Hahahaha, where I'm from there's not enough HVs to go around...you have to go to them!
Which makes them even more pointless IMO! Post natally I got checked up on at home a few times due to traumatic birth experience, but since then I've declined appointments because they've just been badly timed group sessions. Yawn.

My health visitor patronised me so badly that I refused to see her after my postnatal home visit...
HV: "so what do you do?"
Bunty: "I work in marketing"
HV: "no dear, what do you do now?"
Bunty: "erm, I'm on maternity leave from my job in marketing"
HV: "no dear, now you're a mummy"
Still wish I'd said "oh thanks for that, I was wondering what that baby was doing there"...

I agree with 99red, health visitors have an important job to do and I don't think it's unreasonable to want to see where the baby will go home to. If you adopted a child you'd face 100 times as much scrutiny, and in many cases if you adopt a rescue pet your home will be visited too. So why not for children?
But that said being patronised or feeling like you're being inspected is not on, and if a HV spoke to me like that bakingbunty I'd send them packing with a flea in their ear. However I think they have a lot of unrealistic targets to meet, and are possibly not provided with the best training which can make some seem rude or unfriendly. But given all the stories that make the news about some of the squalid conditions children live and sometimes sadly, die in, I don't think anyone can argue that there is a need for HV given that they are often the ones who make the referrals to social services. How else do they know what kind of parent you are otherwise? Get a midwife to follow you out the hospital and make sure you strap the baby in an appropriate car seat correctly and don't light up a fag before driving away?

IME the HV was lovely, very meek and mild, no inspection of house, didn't use the loo or even stay long enough for a cup of tea. Asked if I had any concerns, and if I had access to enough information (bear in mind some people don't have internet access at home). The breast feeding 'counsellor' on the other hand?? I barred her calls in the end...

SaucyJack is right. That would irritate the life out of me. Talk about nanny state. HVs are a total waste of resources and I honestly can't see the point of them. One did a one year check on my friend's baby last week and told her to google the answers to all of her questions because she didn't know the answers.

I like my HV. Didn't meet her before DD arrived so DD was just over a week old when she visited for the 1st time. Asked how I was,how baby was,usual questions about smoking,drinking etc and what position I was putting baby to sleep in. Shes friendly,supportive and as a ftm doesnt laugh at my stupid questions! Had she asked to see crib set up I would have happily shown her and personally agree its fair enough that they do ask. They want to see make sure your child's sleeing environment is appropriate,not rummage through your knicker drawer.

I'm with SaucyJack. I understand people's concerns ref squalid homes and neglected children, but as long as some health proffessional somewhere is seeing a happy healthy baby then why insist on privacy invasion?

I can see they might make a standard check on where the baby will sleep, just to check you are not living in squalor? I don't mean ordinary untidiness, I mean dog/cat poo lying around, kind of place.

melody - Because the police come across situations such as a happy healthy looking toddler being brought up in a drugs den. You don't always get the full picture if you never visit the house.

I don't understand this attitude on Mumsnet. "How dare health professionals want to check that my children are being properly cared for and growing up in an appropriate environment. OF COURSE I AM LOOKING AFTER THEM PROPERLY."

Yes, but not EVERY mother is or there wouldn't be any child abuse/neglect cases.

if i had the comments baking bunty had; i think i would make a complaint to the queen bee or whoever it is thats in charge of these people.

how dare anyone come into your home and try to define your identity. its laughable that these people are supposedly looking for signs of postnatal depression when for many of us its the very fact that we have a career to return to that keeps us sane in the midst of the chaos.

get all the stuff about safeguarding kids etc but most of these women are such dim witted pariahs of old news i doubt they would even notice worrying signs if they smacked them across their smug faces.

I do see the point of view of ReticulatingSplines et al... it's just that for a planned visit, shitty circs would be relatively easy to hide, especially if, as seems to be the case from anecdotal evidence on this thread, the HV doesn't leave the front room.

I'm not even particularly house proud but I do go into a tizz having a massive clean and tidy and rearrange for any irregular visitors and I've enough to deal with with our business and being preggo! Added to which it sounds like they're likely to be either useless or patronising. But then again I'm having a particularly grumpy week...