Have you recently used antenatal, postnatal, or early years services in the UK? Tell a Cross Government Group on Early Years Family Support, about your experiences - £300 to be won!

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As lots of Mumsnet users will know, having a new baby can be incredibly exciting and rewarding - but it can also be really challenging, and lots of new parents make use of classes and services to try to find information, get support, or just make some fellow new-parent friends.

A UK Government Ministerial Group on Early Years Family Support has been set up to improve these services, and its members want to hear about Mumsnet users’ experiences. They want to hear your feedback about pregnancy, baby and parenting services offered across the UK by the NHS, local government and charities. This includes (but isn’t limited to) help from health visitors, ante- and post-natal classes, breastfeeding support, parenting classes and peer support groups; the sort of thing you’d access if you are expecting a child or have a child under 2. Part of the Group‘s focus is perinatal mental health and how to effectively support wellbeing for babies and new parents.

Andrea Leadsom, Leader of the House of Commons and Chair of the Group, says: “The importance of the first 1,001 days of a child’s life has been a personal passion of mine for a long time. I am so looking forward to working with Mumsnet to hear about your experiences as an expectant or new parent. Your feedback will help us shape future services for other parents and babies.”

So please tell us about what services you are currently using or have recently used, how you came to find them (and how easy this was), whether they were compassionate, effective, fun and/or useful (or not), and how you think support for new families could be improved.

If you’ve got any suggestions for additional services you’d have liked to use that don’t exist or you couldn’t access, please let us know about those too. We’d also love to hear about the importance of location for you when you choose between services.

Everyone who shares their experiences of pregnancy and baby services they have used will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks

MNHQ

Terms and conditions apply

I had quite extensive support with my most recent pg, as I'm autistic and I have a history of mental health problems. I had midwife visits for 28 days post-birth, weekly therapy from the perinatal mental health service, frequent visits from the health visitor for three months post-birth. I saw the same midwife throughout my pregnancy, at a birth centre local to me. I also had a pre-birth assessment by children's services, which continued until my baby was five months old although they closed the case soon afterwards as I was considered able to cope. I didn't need to request any of these services, it was automatically referred for me as I was already receiving support for autism and mental health issues. I have not had any issues with not enough services being offered to me, quite the opposite in fact. We do have a breastfeeding support group in the maternity centre about 10 minutes' walk away, but personally I found it very easy to breastfeed and didn't see the point in them, I preferred to just use Google when I had questions. We have a local peer support system for pregnant women, which my midwife suggested for me, but I didn't take her up on it as I have been through pregnancy and childbirth before, plus I have two sisters and my mum living locally who have provided good advice and support. I was also busy supervising a property renovation so I didn't have much time for additional meetings. But refusing that support ended up with them recommending the intervention from children's services, which was rather heavy-handed and unnecessary.

I didn't find all the services necessary at all, and a lot of the attitudes from the support were rather ignorant and/or prejudiced (especially as I'm not a first time mum). We have plenty of children's centres locally but I found them quite a depressing place to visit as the additional classes offered are for things like English for speakers of other languages, basic maths skills or support for those recovering from drug addiction, so the peer group there weren't a group of people I could relate to. I have found valuable peer support in attending private baby classes for massage, music, development and play, where the mums tend to be more educated and professional and I have more in common with them.

I live in a inner London borough and they seem to have had their central gov budget sliced so no nearby Ante natal classes I had no midwife just different midwives. Hospital care leading up to labour was great until I was admitted to labor they tried kicking me out because they were short on midwives. They wanted me to go to post natal ward which I refused!
Local stay and play seemed to be overrun with childminders that were not very friendly. Due to hostile environment rule being implemented non white mums feel unwelcome and often excluded and treated like crap. Why would they use any of these services to be treated like that so most don't bother going. Oh and they seem to have lots of requirments before you attend and ask personal embrassing questions about career goals like it's any of their business.

My most recent pregnancy and birth were far better than my first. I had great support this time. The perinatal MH team were amazing, so much so I ended up not really needing them.

We now have a Community midwife set up, which meant I saw the same person each time. This felt much more patient centred than the bank of midwives I had with my first pregnancy.

The MAU and Maternity triage were ridiculously understaffed - I was in a few times and they regularly had 1 doctor and 2 midwives. The midwives there were very kind though.

I had issues with severe migraines during pregnancy and am still waiting on my emergency referral to neurology.

Physio for SPD was amazing this time, prompt response to the referral and regular appointments kept me Mobile throughout.

Antenatal ward was not great - I had GD and there was no appropriate food available so if I didn't eat and ended up with ketones I was scolded, and if I did and my numbers went up, the same. In hospital was the only time I ever had high readings. Again midwives were understaffed and couldn't give anyone the time they needed. The senior sister was clearly a bully who liked the sound of her own voice, loudly. Which, given 4 years previously she'd yelled at me when I was upset because my son was in NICU, I'd had no pain relief, was a surprise.

I was kept on the labour recovery ward for a couple of days and received terrific care, but both times, post natal ward was shocking. No breastfeeding support, no help with baby for anyone less Mobile. No management of people with lots of visitors, despite rules being only 2.

A mixed bag really, some definite improvements, but some things, sadly the same.

My community midwife was brilliant. I had a breastfeeding lady do a home visit which wasn't really necessary but could see being really useful for others. The HV is pleasant but I'd rather not bother with another visitor and messing the baby about. I used to go to surestart groups but they've had þeir funding cut and stopped a lot of groups which i think is a shame as i live rurally and their isn't much available locally, the childminders run groups but they are like the wild wild west

Antenatal classes not offered as I already have children and it was only available to 1st time parents. Since baby is born we saw health visitor twice. Baby weigh clinic in the community centre once per month. No classes or groups I can access as they all have waiting lists, he is 5 months old now and nothing I trird to sign up for has a place for me and I doubt it will since the surestarts are closing. We have had to find and pay for private groups and classes instead which we struggle to afford and I know many parents who simply can't afford it at all.

Labour: mixed bag. The support workers at the start were terrible, but the midwives and doctors did a fabulous job. We had a basic but at least private room in postnatal, and my husband was able to stay, for which I was so grateful.

Breastfeeding: really wonderful support, in particular the volunteer who came round multiple times to help with latching.

Health visitor: this is where things could really improve. I've seen no evidence that the HVs are even medically trained. I knew more from internet research than they did. They mostly just plied me with platitudes.

GP: helpful-ish but way too oversubscribed. We normally have to wait a month for an appointment.

We live in Islington in London btw.

Not a great labour/birth experience second time round. Felt I was left quite alone, moved to a (much earlier requested) birth pool about 10 mins before I gave birth. What had been quite a calm and uneventful experience turned very scary for the final few minutes when the midwife panicked - very grateful obviously for the speed at which assistance rushed to the room, but it did leave me a bit shell shocked. After being shown to my bed for the night I don’t think one person actually spoke to me until being discharged the next afternoon. Not sure if that maybe sounds a bit pathetic now I’m writing it out, but I was exhausted, upset from my experience and I thought there may have been a touch more actual care afterwards. I was relieved beyond belief to be heading home.

I also saw a different midwife at each of my standard appointments whilst I was pregnant - I’m sure they weren’t all measuring the bump the same!

Only other comment - the health visitors I’ve encountered don’t provide much useful info at all (in my experience/opinion). I’m sure they have so much to offer to mums who need a bit more support, but I feel they’re just box ticking and there’s no information I gained from their visits that blew me away, I could have just googled or used my common sense. They should focus their resources on people who really need their help.

Hello

Thanks very much to everyone who's posted. If you haven't already done so, it would be really great if you could mention where you're from (no need to be too specific, a county or even region would do). It would help the Ministerial Group keep an eye on any patterns around best practice (or not so great practice). Thanks

I had births in 2014 and 2017. Midwife care was good, consultant fetal medicine care fine though main consultant had poor bedside manner.
Postnatal ward horrible the first time, bearable the second time, partly because we paid for a side room (had no idea this was an option the first time).
Children's centre baby group was brilliant with my first - I couldn't drive after an emergency section and had no local family so it was great to have a supportive place to go. Had closed by the time I had my second but I knew more other families in my area by then so had more of a support network.
I think location is extremely important. I love quite rurally so public transport is poor and had two sections so couldn't drive. Even once I could drive I felt very unsafe due to the sleep deprivation. It doesn't make sense to encourage breastfeeding which inevitably causes worse tiredness but expect mums to drive themselves backwards and forwards to all sorts of hospital appointments. I do think the health visitors were more clued up on breastfeeding the second time - the first time they completely missed that baby wasn't sucking properly because his latch looked fine and I didn't realise anything was wrong (I thought it was normal for him to feed for 90 minutes at a time.). All the individuals I met were doing their best I think but I think they have had more training on breastfeeding now. I remember one HV told me I should get his feeds down to 40 minutes but gave me no suggestions as to how I might do that. Another HV made me feel awful for not managing to express and top up on top of feeding for the vast majority of the time. In the end I phoned one of the breastfeeding helplines who got me sorted out. I know HVs deal with all sorts of other stuff so I would suggest they shouldn't be expected to be breastfeeding experts but should be able to refer people onto separate services who can specialise in breastfeeding.

I used the ante natal services in 2018.

A few pros:

-Some of the staff were friendly
-The midwives in Margate QEQM maternity unit were lovely
-operating theatre staff were lovely and professional and really helped me understand what was happening
-the hospital food was good

Mainly negative experience however which I have tried to summarise below:

-my scans and midwife appointments were in one hospital however my birthing choices were elsewhere
-midwives were incredibly rude (it was suggested that I had a second GTT test and I asked if I needed this as the first one had made me unwell and the midwives discussing this were loud and said I was not grateful and should just accept what they say and realise that they don't waste their time)
-midwives were inconsistent. One did a home visit and signed me off for a home birth, another one a week later said she couldn't support it and sent us to a consultant
-consultant was very rude and didn't let us speak. They talked down to us. We were aware of our right to choose but she said that we weren't allowed a home birth due to risks (I had a low risk pregnancy and baby was predicted to be 9lb so big but not huge)
-when it was time to go to hospital our chosen hospital was not open so we had to go to another option that we were not familiar with
-staff in the midwife unit were unhappy about baby measuring large and told me they didn't feel confident
-moved to labour ward due to meconium. Some staff were great and others not so much. It felt like my husband was supporting me more than them. I felt pushing starting and was told "stop" "don't push". I tried to explain that this wasn't me but that it was happening and they kept saying stop. I did manage to stop but it was painful
-slow progress after this leading to emergency c section
-post surgery I was put in a room and not given the call button. No one changed my dressing or pads until 24 hours later. I was meant to have antibiotics and this was forgotten
-when my husband had to leave I asked a midwife to help for two minutes whilst I went to the bathroom as my baby was crying and I didn't want to leave her unattended. Midwife said she couldn't and I would just have to leave my baby
-breastfeeding support was rough and made my baby cry. It wasn't explained and everything was just done physically
-on the morning I was due to check out I got told that due to blood loss they needed to check my iron and see if I needed a transfusion (two days after giving birth)

-midwife home visits varied. One terrified us by saying that we were not being proactive with feeding our baby (she asked how often baby was feeding and we said we weren't sure but every few hours). When we wrote it down it turned out it was regularly but that in our tired state we hadn't registered this
-health visitor was condescending and whenever I asked for breast feeding help she said to go to a support group. I told her I couldn't drive and it wasn't within walking distance. She kept telling me to go to play groups even though I said I couldn't drive until cleared due to the surgery. We eventually moved to formula as I couldn't BF and when told the HV she wrote in the red book "baby breastfeeding well and topped up with formula as needed"

Overall my experience was awful. I'm glad I did hypnobirthing to get me through. I felt patronised, spoken down to and treated like an idiot throughout, with a few exceptions of good professionals. In the hospital i felt like an inconvenience most of the time and when I asked a question was ridiculed loudly by staff in the office for me and everyone to hear. I was also put through two GTT tests needlessly within weeks of each other.

I would love to praise my surgical team though who were friendly and calm and really explained it well to me.

I am generally unhappy about the antenatal services in my area

To improve I suggest:

-listening to the women giving birth, respect them and talk to them. Don't just ignore them and treat them like idiots
-treat the mothers as a person, babies are important but don't disregard the mother
-help and talk about breastfeeding, don't just shove a baby's head onto the boob and hope they get it
-continuity of staff (I saw 8 different midwives outside of the hospital)
-communication. Luckily nothing bad happened to me with the delay in antibiotics and loss of blood but it could have been worse
-ante natal classes provided by nhs
-I understand that it's busy, I work in a clinics setting but it is so important to see patients as people and not just bodies taking up beds
-learn from the surgical team who were amazing and explain things

My experience was generally really good with the one big exception of feeding information/advice/choices. There was so much pressure to breastfeed and I was given a lot of (I’ve subsequently found out is) inaccurate information. No proper information about formula is given whatsoever, (as in amounts, preparation methods etc). I felt completely judged by the community midwives when I failed at breastfeeding and was effectively just dropped and left to get on with it alone with no advice or assistance at all. Something as simple as how to safely prepare bottles felt quite overwhelming as a hormonal, sleep-deprived and probably teetering on the edge of PPD new mum but I was left to figure out myself with the internet.

I had amazing antenatal support from my local hospital including the perinatal psychology team. I truly believe that it made the biggest difference in how I coped with a new baby and I hope more women get the chance to access perinatal mental health services. It was so useful and so so important. Can't bang on about it enough!

Post natal support was great for the first month and then dropped off a cliff. Had a fantastic health visitor initially but then she left and there hasn't really been a replacement

I’m in NE Scotland, have a 2.5 year old and a 16 week old.
Ante natal care at the start of my first pregnancy in the city was unexceptional but fine, a different midwife every visit. I moved out to the ‘shire’ at 5 months and from then saw the same community midwife through both pregnancies, she was utterly fantastic. She made everything as easy and convenient as she could and recognised that I might have ICP when I had slightly atypical symptoms. When I got referred to the hospital for this they were a shambles, every time I went in I saw a different person they all wanted a different treatment plan, different scans and checks, different doses or medication, no agreement on if and when I should be induced, one registrar insisted that the other registrar was wrong and I had to make another appointment to see a consultant when I turned up to this special appointment it was the same registrar I’d originally seen. On one visit they couldn’t prescribe the medication I needed because it was after 4pm and the drugs cupboard with the prescription pads in had been locked!
Both births were fine, straightforward and in the MLU, one in the pool, one too quick for the pool, midwives were lovely but didn’t see much of them. Discharged the same day, hung around for about 4 hours longer than we needed to with the 2nd one as we were waiting for the paperwork. Fortunately I never set foot in the postnatal ward which by all accounts is hellish, understaffed, noisy and miserable.

Post natal, with my first 2 of my community midwives were great, the 3rd was awful. My own midwife covered for the awful one and came to see me in her own time when I was due to see the awful one. They knew she was dreadful and she had fortunately left by the time I had number two. The good midwives were brilliant with breastfeeding support and general care for me. They visited every day that I needed them.

The 6 week postnatal check the first time was reassuring although she told me to expect that my stitches wouldn’t fully heal until I stopped breastfeeding, which meant I endured them being painful for about 4 months without thinking it was unusual, when mymmidwife did my second set of stitches she was horrified to hear they’d taken that long and said I should insist on a gynaecologist referral if they took as long again.

The 6 week postnatal check in our area has now been scrapped for the wonan, it’s baby only. I think this is appalling and shows an utter disregard for women’s health and wellbeing, once the baby is safely out they cease to matter.

My HV with my first baby was amazing, she recognised I was on the edge of PND and with a rather challenging baby. She visited probably weekly, was very reassuring and offered me help from a homestart volunteer (which I was stupidly too proud to take). With my second baby the HV has changed. The new one is also very helpful, happy to answer questions, gets back to me promptly and is also reassuring. I didn’t see so much of her because I haven’t needed to. She referred me to a specialist breastfeed support nurse when I was struggling who has been fantastic, seen me twice and spent at least an hour each time helping with position and latching. She tried to refer us to the tongue tie clinic but they refused to see us as the breastfeeding nurse couldn’t definitely feel a tongue tie, which was frustrating but in the end she’s been gaining weight ok and although I’m uncomfortable it’s not agony so we are just living with it.

Despite having PND twice before I was not signposted to the mental health midwife.

After birth when PND came back there was zero help. My HV contacted the midwives to get me referred to the mental health midwife to access more help. Baby is now nearly 2 and it's never happened. Dr was useless and said it was tablets or nothing. There is no counselling available except through a voluntary service and as I live in a small town the chances of me knowing those who volunteered was very high. Plus none of them are trained professionals.

NHS severely let me down. I have since discovered there are counselling services available in my area but none of them seem available for PND unless you receive inpatient treatment or the GPs just have no clue what is in their area.

Also I asked to attend baby massage classes also but the invite never appeared. I don't know if they have been scrapped just live the HV drop in sessions or they forgot about me again.

I'm 38 week pregnant and from start to finish the care I have received has been absolutely disgusting. A lot of confidentiality breeches have been broken and these people have caused me nothing but emotional suffering throughout my whole pregnancy. The worst experience I have ever had in my life and I will be taking things further. This is my third child and I have to say I never felt so let down, intimidated, isolated and abused in my whole life!!!!

Im not having a great time with antenatal services at the moment. Didnt get my booking in appointment til 11 weeks (despite underlying medical condition, spotting and extreme morning sickness) and scan appointment for a few days shy of 14 weeks (a 90mile round trip). I had n
Begged for an early scan. I feel like nobody cares about this baby which was not my experience of a few years ago (DS) around 6 years ago (dd).

Antenatal with the community midwives was wonderful. They were fantastic, always available. Unfortunately from my 20 week scan it became apparent that using the birthing unit was not an option as I had a low lying placenta so was transferred to consultant care. I then had 2 big bleeds where they considered sending me to another hospital in case baby arrived early. Thankfully he stayed put, however the registrar I saw on several occasions after the fortnightly scans sent me into panic attacks because he just didn't take time to listen and realise I had real issue with the possibility of a C-section while being awake...so much to the point my husband took to completely shutting him, and every other consultant down, whenever they started by saying I would be unconscious if a C-section was required before the conversation could start.
I did then see a senior consultant who after looking at the placenta position signed me off on an induction at 37 weeks due to small baby/several instances of no movement. At this point in time the local birth centre was closed (I had been told I could transfer from the main hospital back there for a couple of nights before coming home as the hospital was 40 miles away).
Induction started well, but when my waters went I started contracting constantly, and with every contraction baby showed signs of distress, so ended up with an emergency csec and thankfully they put me out for it.
The initial aftercare was great, one of the midwifery assistants helped with every feed to get breastfeeding established, and after 3 days we were sent home.
The next day the community midwife called and told me I had to go to the , my husband said not happening, so they came to us and said son looked jaundiced, so we did have to go to community hospital, from there, because the machine had him quite high he needed bloods, so they decided, rather than take the blood and send it to main hospital, we should go as "it would be easier".
Got to the main hospital for 7pm (husband had said we would go after rush hour as was not getting us all stuck in traffic) and bloods were taken. At 10.30pm we were told bloods had been lost and needed redoing. By midnight hubby was really struggling as he was only 6 weeks post op himself, and had been up and down to hospital with very little sleep for 4 days so I rang the bell for results to be told they weren't back. At this point I checked myself and son back into hospital and sent hubby home to sleep. I was woken at 3am to be told results were ok, but test would need to be redone the next day.
Hubby arrives at hospital next day and the first thing we were told was we would need to bring baby back at 10pm that night for next test. Explained that wasn't an option so the did the test at 10am, by 1pm we were allowed home but told to come back next morning. Next day after bloods were done I asked if this couldn't be done in local community hospital as we were literally spending all our time back and forth and waiting in hospital. Told not an option.
The next day back at main hospital the lady who helped establish breastfeeding was on and taking son's bloods and I fell apart. She left the room, rang community midwives who said of course they could do it, and arranged for the tests to be done locally. Turned out to be breast milk jaundice which eventually cleared on its own.
Community midwives were again fantastic, and kept me on longer than the 10 days as were worried about my mental health and felt hubby was unsupportive. Looking back he was suffering depression, but at the time I did feel very alone, but also felt like I couldn't say anything.
Health visitor was lovely, and came every month to check on us both, my mental health was very much supported,and she offered advice on how to help hubby adjust too. She also got the breastfeeding supporter from the children's centre to come out and help as I was having problems. This lady not only referred me to a lactation specialist, but also invited me to a group being run for mums and babies by children's centre for mums who struggle with mental health,which led to me actually getting out of the house and meeting new friends.
Lactation specialist told me to go to GP and get tests done for bacterial infection due to pain I was suffering, first GP I saw told me breastfeeding hurts, deal with it or switch to formula, and refused to do the tests. Lactation specialist then wrote a letter stating what needed to be done, and I saw a different GP who gave me antibiotics which sorted out pretty immediately.
My HV then went on sick and I got a grumpy phone call complaining I hadn't attended a weigh in (going out still caused a certain amount of panic).
I went to a couple and haven't been back since as they moved them to a less convenient location, and at a time when it clashed with another group I attended.
12 month check was done at 10.5 months, all well (June time)
In November I rang with concerns about feeding and sleeping, went into see someone, and was told that I needed to sleep train before we addressed any feeding issue. She would see me again in a month, however I didn't hear anything and as I found the advice as useful as a chocolate teapot I haven't chased up.
I feel the system is poorly run, however the individual health care workers are usually worth their weight in gold (there are exceptions).
I was saddened to hear that the children's centre has had to cut groups it offers as they were my lifeline in the early days.

First baby was in 2012, lots of contact from various services. HV's sure start sent letters, lots of free groups and funded groups. Second was in 2015, a little contact but nothing after the first year. The best classes gone. The remaining now charging. Third baby in 2017, no contact from any services at all after 6 week check. I think I am experiencing the shortfall in funding, either that or they decided I had children already so didn't need any support. But the cuts to support groups and classes is so sad. It encouraged a all round mix of people to meet and the same people I met in these classes with my first I now see at the school gates.

Luckily I neither really needed nor wanted help, even from the first but I am fortunate and have family and friends. Those who are more vulnerable have less to fall back on than they once would have.

Not great to be honest

Community midwives I just felt like a number no relationship built or care pre natal despite 2 miscarriages one at 12 weeks involving an op before my ds was born. No support around the anxiety I felt with regards to this.

In hospital completely shocking post labour. No support with feeding, baby was massively unsettled and I'd had emergency c 2nd night asked for some support as I hadn't slept and was feeling awful and no pain killers, left me for hours waiting. No support with breastfeeding although I was concerned and repeatedly asked.

Post natal constant conflicting messages as baby wasn't feeding well. Ended up getting private lactation consultant and private tongue tie snip as was told it's be weeks for nhs.

Allergy baby took months to get support, everyone passed me off as a ftm being paranoid. Wasn't until I visited weigh clinic at 2 months and ds had complete melt down and senior hv said how often is he like this I said 90% of the time but no one will listen that I eventually got gp to listen.

No follow up or support. Repeated requests for support with sleep due to reflux/allergy very little forthcoming. Took me being diagnosed at gp with chronic exhaustion for hv to acknowledge it wasn't just normal baby sleep issues. Even then the support had been non existent. I have been on my knees and I just feel let down.

The whole service needs review with better signposting to support if the funds aren't there with the nhs. All professionals need to listen to the mum more and not just patronise them as not knowing anything. Local community groups have been invaluable for me, hv groups were constantly being cancelled at short notice and were pretty rubbish. Advice outdated and not practical and very to one way of thinking if that doesn't work very little alternative. Unfortunately my area has 60% vacancies and a disgruntled work force and so will never deliver quality service.

As a type one diabetic I had a high risk pregnancy and was seen at antenatal clinic fortnightly. They were fantastic and I couldn’t ask for more. I developed some further complications but the support for these was excellent.
I had an elective c section due to having had a previous emergency one and everyone involved in that was brilliant.
My experiences changed on the postnatal ward however. With a few exceptions the individual midwives were nice, but far too busy to provide adequate care. Some tests on my baby (required due to my condition) were not done until six hours after they should’ve been. She then wound up on NICU and I believe would’ve been less poorly if guidelines had been followed. There were also three separate data breech issues when I was there, with notes being lost, or me being given another patient’s information.
NICU staff were fantastic, but better coordination needed between what they’re doing, and what is happening with the mum on the postnatal ward. There needs to be a bigger focus on the wellbeing of parents with babies in NICU.
Health visitor has been great, very accessible. I’ve also had support from a breastfeeding group which is a free session put on by a private company. Thank goodness they do as there is no other breastfeeding support locally once you’re out of hospital.

There really needs to be high quality, easily accessible breastfeeding support - trained lactation consultants, available on the NHS, who can travel to see mums and babies at home. Why is this critical service not available? With the very poor rates of breastfeeding in the UK I am quite surprised this has not been flagged up as an area for improvement and investment.

Health visitors are a mixed bag but overall I found them well-meaning but completely useless and often ill-informed about topics like breastfeeding. They are not really specialist enough to know about particular topics in-depth, and so they take a general view of everything that isn't really that far off a layperson's (e.g. more opinions than fact). Ours were really kind, though, which is worth a lot to people.

Midwives are amazing and working under extreme pressure. The home birth teams and teams that can provide continuity of care are particularly valuable to women. I was lucky to have this in my first pregnancy and partially in my second (London). To be honest, I don't think you can really call it continuity of care if you see the same people throughout pregnancy but then have surprise midwives at the birth and see different midwives for aftercare. Ideally continuity of care means exactly that -- through pregnancy, birth and after.

My first child was born in 2012 and my second in 2017. I was quite shocked by the reduction of postnatal midwife visits, the disappearance of the 6-8 week 'mum and baby' GP check, the total lack of NHS breastfeeding support, and the decimation of children's SureStart centres. It felt as if we were going backwards at an alarmingly fast rate. It rather gives the impression that, despite the rhetoric, the government doesn't give a shit about women and babies.