Health visitors vital to newborn and family development
The importance of newborn babies being seen within a fortnight of birth has been highlighted by a leading Black Country health visitor.
At the Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, health visitor team leader Rebecca Stephens said the first 14 days were vital to ensure the health of not only the baby, but of the mother as well.
Ms Stephens, who has eight years of working as a health visitor and team leader at the Stourbridge Health and Social Care Centre, said the new birth visit was important for all parents.
She said: "The new birth visit is what we call the new birth visit and is important as the health visitor will go out to the home, explain the role of the health visiting service and provide all the contact details and clinics that they require.
"They provide parents with evidence-based advice on safe sleeping, vaccinations and infant feeding, whether that's breast-feeding or bottle-feeding, and a range of other services.
"They'll review both the baby's and the mother's mental health and provide opportunities to discuss the labour and birth as having a baby is a huge life change, whether it's your first child or not."
New data has shown that nearly 100,000 new-born babies in the UK did not receive their first health visit within the recommended 14 first days last year.
Ms Stephens said any delay in seeing a health visitor within 14 days could lead to preventable health problems and parents missing out on crucial information.
She said: "It can lead to major health effects and information, such as the importance of keeping up to date with vaccinations and safe sleeping.
"New parenthood can be very overwhelming at times, so we want to make sure our families have all the knowledge they need to keep their babies healthy and safe.
"If this contact is completed prior to 14 days, then it overlaps with the midwifery service and ensures that every baby always has a nurse or midwife to turn to, so if this visit is delayed, it could potentially create a gap between the services and leave families not knowing where to go if a problem arises."
Ms Stephens said there were a number of situations where a 14-day appointment could be missed, including if the baby is still in the neonatal unit or if the family has been moving around, but said these situations could be prevented through working with the service.
She said: "What we'd say to parents is work with us with this appointment and, for example, if they're stopping with family, please let us know if they're unable to make or need to change the appointment times.
"Families are very busy with things like school runs if they've got other children, so it's quite normal for us to try and rearrange it to fit in with their needs."
The health visiting team at the Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is able to provide a range of services to help new parents, including home visits, clinic appointments, development reviews and parental information sessions.
Ms Stephens said the service was vital to ensure that newborn children could be looked after and families could be given the support they needed.
She said: "The role of a health visitor and of our service is vitally important as families need to know that there's someone there to support them.
"Children don't come with an instruction booklet and to have someone there to guide them through and support them is essential."
