I'd love first and foremost to start off with hearing from you about what your job entails really.
Health visitors - they have an important role in ensuring that they help and support parents through the transition to parenthood, being able to support parents to understand their baby and therefore create, you know, positive relationships with their baby to then support them throughout their life, I think is one of the most rewarding things about health visiting.
I think health visitors are uniquely placed to meet the needs of the family because we're the only professionals who are visiting that home. Our nursing background and then our specialist training that we've had on top gives us that deeper insight to be able to view the whole family holistically
We're seeing lots of families that are really struggling at the moment financially, so it is really challenging, and it's trying to understand how best to help some of these families.
Rachel comes out to me at least once a month. I can ring her at any point text at any point, and she'll be there to answer questions and give me advice on what to do next it has generally helped me to the point that I can now speak to multiple people about different things and get things off my chest before I break down.
When you go through that door, the child might be not reaching their milestones, or their mother might be really anxious about that, and so your plan for that visit completely goes out the door and you you meet their needs and you offer the support for what they need at that time.
And do you try and start forming that relationship with families before the birth?
Yes, between like 28 and 36 weeks we usually make contact. Yeah, just to find out how the pregnancy is going, but also just, you know, to build a relationship with them.
It's such a vulnerable time isn't it the birth of a newborn babies, particularly the first, your first child? You are the vital link between health and hospitals through to then the education system. So the role you're playing, it's really critical.
She's so engaged isn't she? She's really looking at everything.
What sorts of things would you hope this relationship with your health visitor will give you?
Just the confidence I think and the reassurance.
You know, times of need we've felt very held.
I'd say health visitors have done quite a lot for us, made us feel more confident about our heath, our mental health and our daughter's health.
When you first have a kid no one tells you absolutely nothing. Wherever, you know, struggling mental health-wise, we're overwhelmed, like I said she's literally just a message or a call away.
So much of it is behind closed doors, you know. You're in people's homes which is, you know, it isn't a highly visible service. You're seeing this firsthand, you're in people's homes, you're building these relationships with these families and you're seeing the real life challenges that they're all facing.
You're welcomed in. They want you there, so anything that you can give to have a positive impact on a child and a family, that's important.
I'm not going to change the world, but if I can make a small change to a family, that's what I want to do.
Families need support like, we've seen today more than ever, and it's so important that we recognise and celebrate this amazing role that health visitors play up and down the country.