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Public Health Nurse and New Mums

  • 30-09-2024 8:41am
    #1
    Blondey82
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 72 ✭✭


    Hey all, I'm a freelance writer and I’m looking at the topic around the very important relationship between the PHN and a new mum. I’m looking to get as many perspectives as possible, the real experiences we had with our PHNs.


    PHNs do a really hard job, they look after people from birth to death in the community and like many healthcare workers, they are often under-resourced and over-stretched. However many new mums leave PHNs meetings in tears or feeling bad about themselves. This isn’t always the case of course and there are plenty of positive experiences, but I would like to explore all angles.

    I’ll be sharing my own experiences, chatting to some PHNs and would love to hear from any mums who who’d like to share your stories.
    Feel free to message me.

    Cheers



Comments

  • #2
    SmallgirlBigcity
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 244 ✭✭SmallgirlBigcity


    My PHN wasn't very helpful. It was my first time breastfeeding and she didn't help with the latch. She was also quite rude. I ended up paying 180 euro for a breastfeeding consultant to come to my house who showed me a great tip on how to latch the baby, which only took about 5 mins. I luckily had the money to pay for that but I'm sure a lot of women don't. I think the PHN service could be improved. Women are often very vulnerable after child birth and like you said, are often upset after the PHN visit.



  • #3
    Moonbeam
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 18,986 Mod ✭✭✭✭Moonbeam


    When I had my first I actively avoided the PHN I did not like her at all or the whole set up then we moved and I had 3 more kids and we had 2 wonderful PHN's.



  • #4
    witchgirl26
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,253 ✭✭✭witchgirl26


    I was lucky that my PHN was really good. She job-shared though so was tough sometimes to get her. We also hit covid when my child was 10 months old so lost out on a number of the check ups. She did ring to see how he was doing against milestones & how I was. I was struggling with anxiety & she advised me to contact GP. She followed up with me 2 months later to make sure I had & to see how I was doing. With the best will in the world though with Covid, things slipped & my son got his 4 year check up just after his 5th birthday via phonecall. We did have a laugh about it. She checked his height & weight (we check them ourselves) & was able to reassure me that he wasn't underweight or that. She gave some potential solutions to a couple of small problems & said to call down anytime if I felt he needed an in-person check.

    That said, the majority of my friends have had horror stories with the PHN's from giving wrong advice in relation to breastfeeding, weaning, etc.



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