On Tuesday Olivia and I went to the final meeting of our NHS postnatal class. I got very little out of these sessions. The first one was just a chat and didn't really cover very much useful material and I didn't bother going to the second class as it was about baby massage and we already did this elsewhere. The third class talked about play, from babies to older children, and had a few useful things and some handouts but it wasn't really anything I hadn't read elsewhere. The final class was on weaning and again it didn't really answer the questions I had and didn't impart much useful information. Now, as you have probably already worked out, I read...A LOT! When it comes to weaning time I will read up on it from reputable websites, books and magazines. But even with my limited exposure so far I found all the things the health visitor was saying were old news.
I would also questions how accurate some of the information we were given over the weeks was. For example I asked a question about how much milk and how much food you gave when weaning as I am a bit confused as I know the baby continues to have bottles while starting on solids (answers on a virtual postcard...) The Health Visitor didn't seem to have a clue what I was talking about and just told me about giving 2.5 ounces of milk per pound of body weight, which I already new. She then said 'what are you giving her at the moment, 7 or 8 oz bottles?'. I said no - 5 or 6 oz as she doesn't take more than that and is making pretty big weight gains on that as it is. I knew that 7 or 8 ozs was a lot for a baby her age and a few of the other girls agreed as we chatted over coffee later. When I cheked the formula packet when I got home I discovered that 7 or 8 oz bottles are suitable for a 6 month old baby of 16.5 pounds - at least 3.5 pounds and 3 months more than Olivia. This suggested that the Health Visitor was pretty out of touch. I9 have heard different Health Visitors give contradictory information. Last week, when Olivia did a few unusual nappies I went along to a clinic to be told by a Health Visitor that she didn't know why the nappies were like that - she didn't even offer any suggestions. I would have expected a Health Visitor to be experienced in things like that.
I don't want to tar all Health Visitors with the same brush as there must be some great practitioners out there but I have heard lots of tales from various people who believe that what they have been told is not always accurate. Health Visitors are not volunteers - they get paid to be experts on childrens nutrition and development. According to an NHS careers website they are qualified nurses or midwives with at least 2 years practice, who have undertaken further training!!!!!! You'd think that during these years of practice and training they would have covered the basics like feeding and nappy contents??
So, basically I personally found the experience of the postnatal classes to be a waste of precious NHS resources. They certainly were not a patch on the antenatal classes we attended with our hugely knowledgeable and experienced midwives...
I would also questions how accurate some of the information we were given over the weeks was. For example I asked a question about how much milk and how much food you gave when weaning as I am a bit confused as I know the baby continues to have bottles while starting on solids (answers on a virtual postcard...) The Health Visitor didn't seem to have a clue what I was talking about and just told me about giving 2.5 ounces of milk per pound of body weight, which I already new. She then said 'what are you giving her at the moment, 7 or 8 oz bottles?'. I said no - 5 or 6 oz as she doesn't take more than that and is making pretty big weight gains on that as it is. I knew that 7 or 8 ozs was a lot for a baby her age and a few of the other girls agreed as we chatted over coffee later. When I cheked the formula packet when I got home I discovered that 7 or 8 oz bottles are suitable for a 6 month old baby of 16.5 pounds - at least 3.5 pounds and 3 months more than Olivia. This suggested that the Health Visitor was pretty out of touch. I9 have heard different Health Visitors give contradictory information. Last week, when Olivia did a few unusual nappies I went along to a clinic to be told by a Health Visitor that she didn't know why the nappies were like that - she didn't even offer any suggestions. I would have expected a Health Visitor to be experienced in things like that.
I don't want to tar all Health Visitors with the same brush as there must be some great practitioners out there but I have heard lots of tales from various people who believe that what they have been told is not always accurate. Health Visitors are not volunteers - they get paid to be experts on childrens nutrition and development. According to an NHS careers website they are qualified nurses or midwives with at least 2 years practice, who have undertaken further training!!!!!! You'd think that during these years of practice and training they would have covered the basics like feeding and nappy contents??
So, basically I personally found the experience of the postnatal classes to be a waste of precious NHS resources. They certainly were not a patch on the antenatal classes we attended with our hugely knowledgeable and experienced midwives...
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