Do you have a Health Visitor?

Yes, but I don’t think you are missing out on anything particularly if you don’t have one. They come a couple of times when they are newborn and a few weeks old, then not again until 1 years old, then 2.5 years old. The older checks were just a phone call for me.

@Lisa Thanks Lisa. That's good to know. I didn't really know what I was / wasn't missing out on.

@Natalie it says online Hampshire do have a health visiting service? Which hospital/GP surgery are you under?

I live in Hampshire further south and we do have a health visiting team but they aren't amazing. They come and weight baby for the first few weeks and then you can contact them with any concerns but 9/10 times they tell you to go to your gp

I thought everywhere in the UK offered a health visiting service, although as others have said they aren't great

I have one but honestly you're not missing much. They check up on baby incredibly infrequently. I'd just make sure baby is getting the developmental checks in some other way e.g. in lockdown ours were done by a nursery nurse as the health visitors were so strapped with safeguarding issues. I'd also make sure you know who to speak to for various issues if you do have concerns. But I don't personally think a health visitor is necessary. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/babys-development/height-weight-and-reviews/baby-reviews/

We don't have one assigned specifically to us, we usually just go to a drop in clinic for weighing and asking questions. Although, in all honesty you're not missing much! I'd rather speak to my GP or now the dietician

I thought it was standard that everyone has a health visitor. They come and do the baby checks after they are born then a few weeks later then at their 1 year stage ect. But as the ladies said you're not missing out much and if I have any concerns I'd contact the GP if anything

It's actually a legal requirement that everyone be offered 5 visits from a health visitor. I don't think it's the NHS, its actually county council run generally. However, I never found them useful with my first and declined the service with my second.

Until mine went on maternity leave I talked to mine regularly because I have depression I was on their list to be seen regularly as long as I was happy for it. I now have an email and number to call if I want someone new to be my regular contact. I'm under the perinatal team now I probably wont

I live in Hampshire and we have health visitors here - not sure why you wouldn't down the road in Fleet

I’m also in Hampshire and have one. I imagine you should but maybe they didn’t make contact/have the correct details for you? If you follow this link and pop in your gp surgery it’ll give you the details for them should you want to contact them. I quickly googled gp surgeries in fleet and they have health visitors for branksomewood 🤷🏻‍♀️ Edited to add I’m pretty certain they provided the red book for your babies health related info such as vaccinations, so if you don’t have one may be worth contacting to get that ☺️ https://healthforunder5s.co.uk/hampshire/services/your-health-visiting-service/hart

I live in London but I love my health visitors… they come to the house until 4 weeks old and then after that we have a baby unit in the local doctors and it’s a walk in service, there are 5 or 6 health visitors there and the doctors upstairs if they think you should see someone, until my son was 1 we went every fortnight and got him weighed etc and I could just talk through anything I needed advice with, from my son to myself…

Yes but I hardly see her. Last appointment was 8 weeks now don’t see her til 1 year check

I have one but we now have to go to self weigh in sessions and weigh our babies ourselves. My baby is 9 weeks. There are HVs there but honestly you're not missing much!

I have one and she rubbish. Luckily the HV's in our area run a weekly hub that you can weigh or play, we go just to play every week. Then there are a few HV's there so if you have questions or concerns you can ask, so i always just speak to the others and not mine. Meant to do a 6-8 month check in but she's not booked anything.