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Midwifery Service
Health Visitors – delivering the Healthy Child Programme
The role of a Health Visitor
Where can we help?
How can we help?
How you can access the service
How do we work?
The role of a Health Visitor
Health Visitors are registered Nurses or Midwives who have undertaken additional training to become Specialist Community Public Health Nurses. They work with families to give babies and pre-school children the best start in life, as we know that the first years of life are a foundation for future health and wellbeing.
We work closely with other members of the Community Health Team and the Primary Health Care Team to make sure that all parents and children can access the most appropriate services for their health and wellbeing.
Where can we help?
Health Visitors see people at home, in the Medical Centre, in Early Years settings, Well Baby Clinics and remotely by telephone.
How can we help?
- Transition to parenthood
- Well Baby Clinic
- Babies and children's growth and development including speech, language and communication and readiness for school
- Supporting babies and children with additional needs
- Managing minor illnesses
- Advice on conditions, allergies and infections
- Breastfeeding, bottle feeding, weaning, nutrition and maintaining a healthy weight
- Postnatal depression and mum's and dad's mental and physical health
- Behaviour issues - e.g. sleeping, eating, potty training, tantrums
- Support with parenting
- Family planning
- Family health and relationships
- Teething and good dental health
- Health promotion
- Community health
- Children’s emotional wellbeing
How you can access the service
Health Visitors will contact all families, with children under 5 years, at the following times
After you arrive in Brunei and register at the Medical Centre (you must also register with SSAFA, through the Med Centre to access the Health Visitor)
- Between 28-32 weeks of pregnancy
- With a new baby between 10-14 days
- When your baby is between 6-8 weeks old
- When your baby is between 10-12 months of age
- When your child is between 2 and 2 1/2 years of age
- For Childhood Immunisations
Please also see our contact telephone numbers on this page.
How do we work?
Health Visitors working with families in British Forces Brunei follow UK guidance and best practice which is detailed in the Healthy Child Programme and where possible will offer the service that you would normally expect to get in England.
We offer a Universal Service, which means that we offer our service to all families who have children under 5 years of age.
We don’t have a school nurse in Brunei however the Health Visitor is able to offer targeted support to children 5-19 on an individual basis depending on their level of need.
Midwifery - All the information you need when having a baby in British Forces Brunei
The role of a Midwife
How you can access the service
How your midwife works with your pregnancy team
Additional services provided by the Midwives
CONI (Care Of Next Infant)
The role of a Midwife
The word ‘midwife’ means ‘with woman’, but what does a midwife do and what are their responsibilities?
Being a midwife is more than just delivering babies; in fact, in British Forces Brunei the midwives don’t actually deliver your baby, the staff in RIPAS or SSB KB hospital will be with you for your birth. Midwives are specialists in normal pregnancy and birth and a midwife is usually the first and main contact for a woman during her pregnancy.
They work across the continuum from pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, labour and birth to postpartum, and the early weeks of a newborn infants’ life. They are responsible for providing care and supporting women to make informed choices about their care. Midwives optimise normal physiological processes, and support safe physical, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual situations, working to promote positive outcomes and to anticipate and prevent complications.
Some midwives have trained as nurses first, but it’s also possible to train as a midwife without qualifying as a nurse by specifically studying midwifery.
The role of the midwife is diverse. They:
- Provide family planning and preconception care
- Carry out regular clinical examinations and arrange tests
- Provide health and parent education
- Advise you about diet, exercise, medicines, and staying healthy
- Monitor your physical and psychological health
- Support women and their families throughout the childbearing process to help them adjust to their parental role giving emotional and practical support during pregnancy
- Educate and counsel about pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn care
- Work in partnership with other health and social care services to meet individual women's needs; for example, young adults, women who are socially excluded, disabled and from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
- Help you make your birth plans
- Make referrals to doctors when needed
There are two SSAFA midwives in British Forces Brunei working as community midwives, providing continuity of care. In pregnancy they see you either at home or in the Medical Centre. When you go into labour they are available for advice regarding when to go to hospital. Once your baby is born, they’ll visit you at home for at least the first ten days. Your midwife is part of the SSAFA Community Health Team based within British Forces Brunei working alongside our colleagues in the Medical Centre.
How you can access the service
Contact a midwife directly for pre-conceptual or antenatal care.
Make an appointment through the Medical Centre.
Nurse or doctor at the Medical Centre can refer you if they are seeing you for something else.
How your midwife works with your pregnancy team
Midwives work with the obstetric consultants in RIPAS or SSB KB hospital who provide consultation as needed. Your midwife will refer you to an obstetrician at the start of your pregnancy if your pregnancy is high risk, or towards the end if your pregnancy is low risk. This consultant will see you at various stages of your pregnancy or if problems develop.
The midwives provide woman-centred integrated care based on the best available evidence. They keep up to date with current knowledge and skills, thereby helping to ensure that their care is responsive to emerging evidence and future developments. This requires them to work 7 days a week, working days and participating in an on-call rota out of hours working.
Additional services provided by the Midwives
Midwives are responsible for their own individual practice and have a statutory responsibility to keep up to date with current knowledge and frequently go on to develop their professional expertise and education to higher levels. In British Forces Brunei we have a Baby Massage Instructor.
CONI (Care Of Next Infant)
The CONI programme is designed for parents who are expecting or have given birth to a baby following the sudden unexpected death of a previous baby. It is normal for parents who have experienced a sudden and unexpected death of a baby to feel anxious when they have another baby.
The CONI programme is usually offered for 6 months after a baby has born but may be longer depending on the individual circumstances. Within the programme there are a range of tools which offer an individual and flexible programme of support to families during, what maybe a very stressful time.
Within each Military Overseas Command, where SSAFA provide Community Health Services, there will be a local CONI champion/coordinator, normally a midwife or a health visitor, but any member of the Community Health Team would be able to help you to access this service.
If you think you need the CONI programme, you can find out more information here - but it would be useful to ask one of our Community Health Team members to get the local CONI Champion to contact you.