Your child’s new birth contact

You will be contacted by your Public Health Nurse (Health Visitor) to arrange a contact when your baby is 10-14 days old. Please allow at least an hour for this appointment.

During this contact, you will be able to discuss lots of things, including:

• Feeding your baby
• Safe sleep and safety
• Emotional wellbeing and the support available
• Your family and environment

Part of this contact involves weighing your baby.

The Health Visitor will examine your baby, checking:

• For signs of jaundice
• Their eyes
• Their mouth
• Their umbilical cord and spine

They will talk you through what they are doing as they check your baby over.

Any marks, such as birth marks or marks from an assisted birth, will be documented on a body map in your child’s red book.

If there are any marks that can’t be identified a birth marks or birth injury, there is a process the Health Visitor will need to follow, known as safeguarding. This is to make sure your baby is safe. This leaflet explains the process.

You can find more advice and information in our ‘You and your newborn baby’ collection.

If you would like to speak to the health visiting team about this contact, you can call the Healthy Together Helpline on 0300 300 3001, or you can get in touch via our confidential text messaging service, ChatHealth; details of which you can see below.

Thinking about your experience of giving birth

‘Birth Reflections’ is a service that provides space for you to talk through your birth experience if you feel it was not as you expected. 

You’ll find the contact number for ‘Birth Reflections’ on your maternity records, or you can either call or text your name and date of birth to 07876 476 003 and a midwife will contact you. Alternatively, you can email birthreflections@uhl-tr.nhs.uk