Re-balancing priorities for public health

As a new grandmother and a health visitor who trained in the 1980s, I have been observing a personal and very stark difference in the support of families with young children that has arisen over the last 40 years. It is a situation I recently discussed with my daughter-in-law when she was describing how she is accessing information and guidance for the care of her 9-month-old baby son.

The shortage of health visitors and the change in commissioning of services has resulted in many first-time parents having no access to health visitors in those crucial first few weeks and months. In this environment, digital applications have now become the central – and sometimes only – source of support. They are brilliant for immediate access and available 24/7, and I have no doubt any new parent with a smartphone will be using them to very good effect.

There are various digital platforms that provide the opportunity to measure feeding, sleep, activity and developmental milestones. For my son and daughter-in-law, breastfeeding advice in the early days was gathered from breastfeeding helplines, the local National Childbirth Trust cohort and numerous websites – some, unfortunately, with conflicting information. Similarly, weaning advice was collected from various websites and trusted sources. Development has been measured within the local peer group, comparing when and how each baby achieved a milestone, but with no opportunity to speak confidentially to a health visitor if any concerns arose.