Health visit at 31 weeks pregnant

[Stillmonday]

I'm 31 weeks pregnant with my first baby and have just had a letter through saying the health visitor is coming to spend an hour with me next week.

Is this normal? As it's my first baby I'm not sure what to expect. I didn't think people had HV before the birth ?!

It's normal, don't panic. Some areas will have your HV come and see you before your baby arrives but other areas won't due to staff shortages, resources etc. I didn't meet mine beforehand for this reason but I'm lead to believe this meeting is just to answer any questions you may have, check you're doing ok and really just provide you with any support you might need at this stage, if any. I'm sure some other lovely mumsnetters will be able to say if I'm off the mark though.

Also, loads of women freak out about HV's coming to their house and worry about them judging how messy or clean it is. As long as you're not living in squalor they really don't care! So please don't go crazy cleaning before every visit when you could be resting (now) or spending time with your baby (later). They're there to help you.

Congratulations too btw!

I had this with my second. She just came and had a chat about how I was doing, just so you can meet before you are in new baby fog really, and answer any questions you may have. Haven't heard anything about yet this time around (currently 32 weeks) so they may have had cutbacks round here.

As pp said, do NOT panic about the state of your house. When she called at ours my dh was busy painting the lounge, the toddler was running around barefoot spattered with said paint, and I had to take her up to the spare room to talk as it was the only place there was space. She didn't even blink. As long as it's not squalor, they know that people live in their houses and that a degree of mess, dirt and normal life is totally normal.

I've had my first HV today at 27+5 and was the same as you, first baby and didn't know they came to visit. She just had a chat and took some details, asked if I knew about safe sleeping, how to feed etc. As PP has said it's nothing to worry about, hopefully you have a lovely lady like we did, she basically said she is there to support us in every decision etc and advise us if we feel we need it

I had HV come a couple of weeks ago when I was 36 weeks. She introduced herself and explained about the role of the HVs and that she would come when baby is 10-14 days old. She had some forms to fill in with various questions about what support I have in terms of friends, family etc and gave some brief info about safe sleep and local breastfeeding support etc. It wasn’t a big deal and she didn’t look around the house or anything like that.

I saw my HV at 38 weeks (due to a bit of paperwork going missing - it would have been earlier). We had a chat about local services, how I was feeling, if there was anything I wanted to tell her, if I knew how I planned to feed the baby and safe sleep. It was very relaxed and she didn’t even leave the front room so no need to tidy at all! Not that she would have cared anyway! I told her about my mental health history and we agreed that she’d check up on me a bit more regularly after the birth so it was really useful to met her in advance actually.

Yep I had this for first, they wanted to do it in the middle of an afternoon when I was 26 weeks pregnant, as I already had a midwife appointment and an antenatal class that week I put them off. She was put out because I had a 'right' to have the time off paid for it, but I wasn't going to commute back and forth to my house for an appointment that could wait until I was on maternity leave at 32 weeks due to using up holiday.

It was nearly 2 hours of going through leaflets and vacation schedules and visits timing (reviews) up until my child was 5. It was pretty pointless as far as I was concerned because they could of handed me the pack and I could of read it. Plus any questions that you come up you see them in weigh clinic regularly when the baby is small.

They do it in our area around the 36 week mark.

Unfortunately for the HV - DD1 came at 33 weeks and DD2 threatened to do the same so I never got the pre-birth visit either time. I got an earful off the HV the second time (she knew me previously) for daring to give birth when she was off on annual leave! Sorry I'll keep my legs crossed and a cork up there next time (there won't be a next time)!

I had this with Ds but not when DD came along. She was lovely. Just wanted to know more about me and anyworries I might have and explained what she would be doing afterwards.

I’ve just had an appointment through for a home visit from the health visitor at 38 weeks.

I haven’t met them before - they did offer me antenatal classes but I missed them because I was working and never got round to rearranging.