Health Visiting
Who is the service for?
The health visiting service across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire is made up of Health Visitors, Public Health Nurses, Community Early Years Practitioners and Administrators who work in local communities with children and families from the antenatal period until they go to school. The service offers support for parents of all children (from pregnancy to age five).
How to contact Health Visiting Teams
- Bristol North: 0300 125 6278, sirona.north.hv@nhs.net
- Bristol South: 0300 125 6264, sirona.southhv@nhs.net
- Bristol East and Central: 0300 125 6274, sirona.bristoleastandcentralhvadmin@nhs.net
- North Somerset: 0300 125 5060, sirona.ns.hv@nhs.net
- South Gloucestershire: 0300 125 5200
What we do
The Health Visiting Team offers support to parents to maximise the health and wellbeing of their family through discussion about their health needs and strengths, building supportive family relationships and engaging in wider community services and support.
We offer this in a variety of ways such as home visits, providing guidance and holding baby hubs in your local community that can be accessed from antenatal up until your child starts school.
We run baby hubs across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. It doesn’t matter where you live, you can drop into any of them to chat to members of the health visiting team and meet other parents. See a list of our baby hubs.
You can find out more about the support offered by our Health Visiting Team in this video.
You may be in contact with any of the following:
Health Visitors
Health Visitors are qualified nurses or midwives with a specialist qualification in public health for children, young people and families. They work alongside families offering support and information around parenthood and early parenting. Their training in public health enables them to provide evidence-based support and information on a wide range of topics that can affect the health and wellbeing of families.
Public Health Nurses
Registered nurses or midwives who work within the health visiting team to support children and families.
Student Health Visitors
Registered Nurses or midwives who are training to be health visitors. They work alongside health visitors and the team. You may see them with a health visitor or alone dependent on where they are in their training.
Community Early Years Practitioners
Community Early Years Practitioners also work alongside families using their knowledge of child development to help support parents to understand their child’s behaviour, build a loving relationship with their child and enjoy their parenting journey.
Administrators
Administrators work within health visiting teams to ensure the service runs smoothly. Administrators will call you to book appointments and you may also see them at some of our baby hubs.
When we see you
As a family you will be offered appointments with the health visiting team, starting with an appointment before you have your baby.
Click the sections below to learn more about each visit and watch a video explaining the support we offer.
Antenatal visit
Your midwife will let us know that you are expecting a new baby and the health visiting team will arrange a suitable appointment with you to see you at home between 28 and 34 weeks. This is a good opportunity to find out how the health visiting service can support you and the local support and groups that are available in your area for families.
New Baby Review:
When your baby is around 10-14 days old your health visitor will visit you at home to support you with feeding and caring for your baby and adjusting to having a new family member.
6-8 week review:
Your health visitor will visit you to discuss how things are going and how you are feeling. It’s an opportunity to share how you are adjusting as a family and explore your relationship with your baby and support needs.
9-12 month review:
An opportunity for you to discuss how your child explores their environment and builds communication skills and relationships through play. It’s also helpful to think about the community groups, outdoor spaces and services that your family may find helpful at this age.
2-2.5 year development review:
This is an opportunity to discuss your child’s development with a Health Visitor, to think about their emerging personality and how they communicate their needs and develop relationships with other.
Feedback
Have you used our service? We would love to hear from you. Your experience and views can help to shape and improve services for those that need support in the future. We would really appreciate if you could spare a few minutes to complete the questionnaire below.
Resources
Click on a link below to view a list of resources for the following subjects:
List of drop in Baby Hubs
Details of venues, dates and times for Baby Hubs across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.*
*The baby hub at St Barnabus Centre in Portishead on 22 September has been cancelled due to staff training.
*The baby hub at Whitchurch Health Centre on 01 September has been cancelled. You can access any of our Baby Hubs, or call our duty line to speak to a Health Visitor.
Health Visiting service
Find out what support our Health Visiting service offers and how to contact the teams.
Health Visiting service key points
Find out what support our Health Visiting service offers and how to contact the teams.
Feeding your baby
Support with breastfeeding and bottle
feeding in Bristol, North Somerset and
South Gloucestershire.
Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home‐visiting (MECSH)
A home visiting programme providing professional support for you and your family as your baby grows and develops.
ICON – Infant Crying is Normal
ICON is all about helping people who care for babies to cope with crying.
Infant Crying and how to Cope – ICON – EasyRead leaflet
How to manage when a baby cries.
Pelvic Floor Physiotherapy Service
Problems with your pelvic floor are very common during and after pregnancy. Get help and support from the Pelvic Health Physiotherapy Team.
Start for Life Bristol
Resources for new parents and parents to be.
Getting the best start to life South Gloucestershire
Lists of services in South Gloucestershire which can support parents of young children.
Parents and family support North Somerset
Services across North Somerset to support families.
Bristol Family Hubs
Family Hubs offer information, advice and help to all families in Bristol. They run activities and support you and your family to access services and information both at our Family Hub centres and online.
Supporting healthy family relationships
A video by Bristol Family Hubs and Bristol City Council about resolving family conflict.
The Lullaby Trust
Expert advice on safer sleep for babies.
Keeping physically active during and after pregnancy
Resources to help you keep physically active during and after pregnancy.
Child Accident Prevention Trust
CAPT are the UK’s leading experts in child accident prevention, offering safety alerts, safety advice, training and free resources to help secure a safer world for all our children.
Basis (the Baby Sleep Information Source)
provides access to evidence about biologically normal infant sleep which influences their feeding patterns.
Unicef’s caring for your baby at night leaflet
offers helpful, practical advice to parents about feeding their baby at night.
First Steps Nutrition
Provides evidence-based and non-biased information about formula milk. This website also has information about starting solids and nutritional health for parents during pregnancy and postnatally.
Safe use of baby slings
Information about how to carry your baby safely in a sling or carrier.
Video: MMRV Vaccine
Bristol mum shares her concerns about getting her children vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox) and calls on other parents and carers to make informed decisions.
Video: New mum discusses MMRV vaccine
New mum talks through her MMRV vaccine journey.
Soothing your baby
What to keep in a medicines cupboard video
Related services
The following services may be of interest:
Related information pages
The following information pages may be of interest:
Information and signposting
Feeding support
Our breastfeeding and bottle feeding support page has information and details of support available in the area.
Baby hubs
You can drop into any of the Baby Hubs across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire where you can chat to members of the health visiting team and meet other parents. Staff will be able to offer support with feeding your baby and baby scales are available for you to use. A list of the Baby Hubs we run can be found under the Resources section on this page.
Apps
- Baby Buddy Whether you’re a mum, dad, co-parent or caregiver, Baby Buddy can empower you to feel confident, giving you the knowledge and practical skills to look after yourself and give your child the best start.
- DadPad/Co-parent pad – The essential guide for new dads and co-parents.
- HANDi app aims to provide advice and support to parents and carers when your child is unwell.
Family Hubs
Accessed via your local authority website (Bristol/North Somerset/South Gloucestershire). Services vary by area but may include antenatal or postnatal groups, infant massage and one-to-one support.
South Gloucestershire Family Hubs
What is Healthy Start?
If you’re more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4, you may be entitled to get help to buy healthy food and milk.
If you’re eligible, you’ll be sent a Healthy Start card with money on it that you can use in some UK shops to buy:
- plain liquid cow’s milk
- fresh, frozen, and tinned fruit and vegetables
- fresh, dried, and tinned pulses
- infant formula milk based on cow’s milk.
You can also use your card to collect:
- Healthy Start vitamins – these support you during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
- vitamin drops for babies and young children – these are suitable from birth to 4 years old.
For more information about eligibility, how to apply and where to collect vitamins, see links below:
Get help to buy food and milk (Healthy Start)
Getting vitamins – Get help to buy food and milk (Healthy Start)
Getting help
Our Health Visiting teams can also be contacted on:
- Bristol North: 0300 125 6278, sirona.north.hv@nhs.net
- Bristol South: 0300 125 6264, sirona.southhv@nhs.net
- Bristol East and Central: 0300 125 6274, sirona.bristoleastandcentralhvadmin@nhs.net
- North Somerset: 0300 125 5060, sirona.ns.hv@nhs.net
- South Glos: 0300 125 5200
Getting more help (more extensive goal-based help)
During your time with the Health Visiting team there may be a need to refer on to other services. We will work with you to complete any forms that are required to make sure that the service understands your situation and the support you need.
I am a professional...
Professionals can contact Health Visiting teams using the numbers and email addresses below for advice and support:
- Bristol North: 0300 125 6278 sirona.north.hv@nhs.net
- Bristol South: 0300 125 6264 sirona.southhv@nhs.net
- Bristol East and Central: 0300 125 6274 sirona.ec.hv@nhs.net
- North Somerset: 0300 125 5060 sirona.ns.hv@nhs.net
- South Glos: 0300 125 5200 sirona.southgloshv@nhs.net
