Thousands of babies and children are missing vital appointments amid a health visitor strike and are being put at risk, a mental health charity for new mums has said.
About 100 health visitors at Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board have been on strike since February in a row over job grading, saying they are losing up to £9,000 a year as a result.
Mothers Matter said it had seen demand “double, if not treble” during the strike while Unite said its workers were fighting “to be paid at the appropriate level for their skills and experience”.
Home visits have dropped dramatically since February, with the health board saying that safety and accessibility of services was its priority during the strike.
Mum-of-two Clare Boast had postnatal depression after the birth of her first child – she supports the strike but is concerned families may not be getting the help they need.
She said: “I think a lot of mums aren’t having that opportunity to say ‘I don’t feel right, I’m struggling, maybe a lot, possibly with postnatal depression or aspects of it’ because they haven’t got someone to open up to.”
Becks Wilson 34, is a first time mum to nine-week-old Dylan.
She also supports the strike, but said she had found it difficult without health visitor support.
“He’s formula fed so he didn’t react very well to the first formula and without a health visitor there we ended up going to the GP and to paediatrics and it made things a lot bigger than maybe they were.”