A bit of a defence for HVs

July 3, 2001

I have chuckled at all the comments about HVs..especially as I used

to be one, and used to cringe at some of my colleagues. However, a

little defence or explanation...

Being a HV is about much more that research based care. We have to

take a lot into account, such as culture, family circumstance and

whole family dynamics.

Breastfeeding can be a particularly difficult issue....HVs are only

human and many have had bad breastfeeding experiences, so they

sometimes encourage a bottle through sympathy for a mother rather

than any other motive. Also, BFCs aren't always available...they may

not serve certain areas, and be difficult to get hold of if you don't

have a phone.

Another issue, weaning...I have certainly been 'guilty' of promoting

early weaning....but sometimes a woman is giving obvious verbal

signals that she is going to wean at week 12 so i have always

believed it better to encourage the right food too early rather than

have no input at all

I refer to one conversation:

Me: Just mash a bit of your own tea and give it to her...

Mum: So it's ok for a baby to eat kebabs?...I'll just lick off the

chilli.

Another thing that regularly happens is you will discuss weaning at

10 weeks,recommending they don't begin until X time (by weight,

pattern and reccommendation) and the next week in clinic another mum

comes up to you and says...why did you tell me not to start feeding,

when you told X to start last week etc etc

I'm not saying HVs are all ace! but they are so busy now, with over

300 families per caseload, that it can be hard to keep up with every

development. If I am honest, I would leave the mums who were fairly

clued up alone until they had a problem, as I was so busy with Child

Protection and Special needs...I'm sure it is the same for most HVs

(that's why I left)

Emma

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