"Health Visiting Service"

I’m a mum of twins who are my first children. I’m also a long term mental health patient and have been in and out of outpatient treatments. During my pregnancy I was with the Mental Health Team, which was known to my health visitor from when she met me before I had my twins. I also had a social services referral in the hopes of being able to gain extra support. With my mental health history this made social services see me as a danger to my children, and they wanted to take action. Thankfully as I’d met Julie (Health Visitor) already, she knew from talking to me that this was not the case. I was already bonding with my babies and already had plans for how I would cope during low mental health. 

With help from both Julie and Paul (Perinatal Mental Health Midwife) we were able to set the fears of Social Services to rest and assure them that I was fit to be a good mother. 

Without this extra assistance from Julie and the Perinatal Mental Health Team things could have been very different. I truly believe the health visiting team meeting mothers before they give birth is invaluable and in situations like mine this can help establish a better idea of the mothers overall health. Since the birth of my twins Julie has been amazing in helping me through difficult times such as silent reflux in twin B and a milk allergy in twin A. She is always there for support and to ensure everything is ok and I can access any other services as needed. I cannot recommend her enough and always tell people about my amazing health visitor and her high levels of support.