# Why would a social worker visit?



## eksmom (Jun 29, 2004)

Yesterday I received my and my DD's hospital records from her birth. I have been poring over them and I have discovered quite a few things I was unaware of. One is that we were supposed to get a visit from a social worker, but we were with the lactation consultant when she came. It indicated she would reschedule but she never did as far as I know.

DD was in the NICU for about a day and a half for meconium aspiration - could this be the reason for the S/W? I mean, I don't have anything to hide, there was nothing traditionally alarming (drugs, abuse, etc.) or, I'm sorry to say, nothing terribly untraditional about our birth (UC, HB, refusal of inverventions







).


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## shelbean91 (May 11, 2002)

I was admitted to the hosp at 32 weeks w/dd b/c my water was leaking. We had a social worker come in to give us info on resources and support for premature babies. Maybe it was something like that- you know, support for a difficult recovery. My dd ended up not being born until 35 weeks, but we were prepared for the worst from the day I was admitted- met with everyone possible to give us the 'what ifs'.


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## Storm Bride (Mar 2, 2005)

We have community health nurses who do a home visit with all new moms. Maybe you have social workers filling that role?

I'm going to refuse the nurse this time. I find their visits stressful and not at all helpful.


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## sincitymama (Sep 20, 2003)

Maybe to see if oyu need any assistance? Like to point oyu in the right direction to apply for WIC if you need it, stuff like that?


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## homemademomma (Apr 1, 2004)

in the big hospital in my town, everybody sees a social worker before they go home. its just protocol.


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## Diane~Alena (Aug 23, 2004)

I was in tears at my daughters bedside when she was the NICU. There was one nurse that went and told the In hospital Social Worker and she came by so I had someone to talk to. Maybe the hospital thought you needed support. I know we think of Socail workers as the mean people who have the power to take our kids but they do have posative role too







> I bet no red flags went up at all they were just trying to help I am guessing.


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## weetzie (May 29, 2003)

At the hospital that I worked at, we (the social workers) were mandated to see every parent who had an infant in the NICU.


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## Thmom (May 4, 2004)

many hospitals have the social worker visit each patient before discharge just to inform them of what's available in the community, find out if the patient anticipates any transition difficulties etc... usually it's just to offer assitance. When I had #1 (I was single) the SW made sure I wanted to keep the baby and that I was aware of all the community assitance programs available to me as a single parent.


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## OnTheFence (Feb 15, 2003)

Social Workers are quite commonly used in hospitals when there has been a difficult delivery, problem with babies, or those who visited or had been in the NICU. Often the social workers help you set up services for your child, or at home care if needed, or even care and support for you. They let women know about resources in the community as well. Not all social workers are there to find something wrong with you or your parenting. I had one visit me after my traumatic csection in a catholic hospital. She was also a nun, who came in and prayed with me and to ask me about my experience. She tried to advocate for me to stay additional time in the hospital but my insurance refused.

I've become all too familiar with social workers that work inside hospitals. Having taken care of three terminally ill family members, social workers visit regularly. They help prepare you for what is to come and resources to help you cope. When we adopted our son, we were interviewed by the hospital social worker to make sure we were prepared to take him and care for him (basic baby care, she actually showed me how to bottle feed because I had no clue).


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## mwherbs (Oct 24, 2004)

could be something they do if a baby is admitted to the ICU because babies who do spend alot of time in the ICU are at risk because the parents can feel very detached or pushed away and it makes problems in bonding--
the other things that happen locally- if you admit to ever using pot or other drugs to the certain care providers you get a very close follow up that may included a referral and a urine test for your baby before you leave the hospital-- or they may drug screen you. also if you have tattoos, dreads, or other life style things, or if you share you were abused as a child , you may need a closer look to be sure they aren't liable or missing something. The tattoo thing is a big hold over from when the drug-users used tats to hide tracks. Maybe when the gal came by and you were getting breastfeeding instructions the gal may have assumed you were doing ok- not attachment problems


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## eksmom (Jun 29, 2004)

Thanks for all of your replies. Based on what you are saying, I wish she would have rescheduled. DD's first couple of days _were_ stressful, and I could have used some help coping. Oh well, I'm working on it now... which is why I have the records in the first place.

Thanks again!


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## orangebird (Jun 30, 2002)

Social workers routinely visit moms with babies admitted to the NICU, or a mom admitted for bedrest or monitoring etc. It is totally normal procedure and doesn't mean they were suspicious of anything. At least this is how it is in the hospital I work at. They are just there, it's their job. I always wondered how I would react to them if I was suddenly a patient in my hospital. To be honest the social workers can kinda annoy me so I wonder what they would write about me. I have overheard them talking to moms alot and especially the social workers just out of school seem to be asking so many questions and looking so hard to find something to "help" them with. I am more the kind of person that if I need help, I'll find you, like I hate when sales people approach me at stores and stuff. I know I would come across pissy to a social worker lol!

But it's fine, it's standard routine.


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## danav (Jun 3, 2005)

Noah was transferred to the Children's Hospital NICU from our birth center after a traumatic surprise breech birth. I had forgotten until I read your post, but I do remember now that a social worker came to see me at his bedside once - she was just making contact to see if there was anything we might need, making sure I had support (from family, friends), making sure I was dealing ok with him being there, stuff like that. I'm pretty sure it was a routine consult that they did with every NICU family - that can be a very stressful situation.


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## USAmma (Nov 29, 2001)

I had one visit for each of my baby's births and they were nothing out of the ordinary. I also had one visit when Nitara was in the hospital and sick. She wanted to make sure I knew about government assistance programs and that sort of thing.


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## applejuice (Oct 8, 2002)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Storm Bride*
We have community health nurses who do a home visit with all new moms. Maybe you have social workers filling that role?

I'm going to refuse the nurse this time. I find their visits stressful and not at all helpful.

ITA with you. I had a county nurse visit me after my first HOMEBIRTH to be sure I was nursing and o.k.

I found the visit interventionist and I would refuse it if I were to do it again.


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## happyblessedmama (Sep 6, 2003)

Our DD was also in the NICU for 12 days, same reasons. We did get a social worker visit, and were told that was standard for any NICU parent at that hospital to try to help you "adjust" to your "special baby" and help with any "needs" you had.

My only need was getting my baby home, and while it may have helped some people, I didn't want to "share" or "get help from" any social workers. Anyway, that was the practice at the hospital we were involved with. The nurses reported on the baby's condition, the "social factors" (how the parents were doing, caring for the baby, etc.), doc's orders, things like that. The SW visit was just a part of the NICU bundle.


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## ZeldasMom (Sep 25, 2004)

I am a social worker and used to work in a hospital. A huge percentage of my time was spent getting people connected with resources to support them in doing well once they left the hospital.


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## fourgrtkidos (Jan 6, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *weetzie*
At the hospital that I worked at, we (the social workers) were mandated to see every parent who had an infant in the NICU.


Ditto for ours.


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## Greaseball (Feb 1, 2002)

Sometimes if you are young, single, or low-income you are automatically signed up for a visit from the social worker or home health nurse, but you can decline.

I accepted after #1's hospital birth because I wanted to mess with the statistics - you know, show them a young low-income mom who breastfed.


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## Llyra (Jan 16, 2005)

I was sent a social worker when I was in preterm labor; they wanted to make sure that if Julia was born premature (this was at 31 weeks) that I had a decent support network to help me through it, that we could afford the related expenses, that any questions I had were answered, etc. It was actually really nice to talk to someone about all that, even though it turned out that DD held on until term. At the time, I was afraid and upset and I appreciated the concern.


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## Yummymummy74 (Jun 7, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Greaseball*
Sometimes if you are young, single, or low-income you are automatically signed up for a visit from the social worker or home health nurse, but you can decline.

I accepted after #1's hospital birth because I wanted to mess with the statistics - you know, show them a young low-income mom who breastfed.









Yes hospitals where I live carry out some pretty sneaky profiling..they assess you based on risk according to a questionaire you fill out thats conveniently tucked into your admissions forms.. its very clever how they disguise it..

I always left mine blank because I knew what it was or just said no to everything :LOL


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