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Mothers Matter, a charity that supports new parents and specialises in mental health, said demand for its services has "doubled, if not tripled"
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."
Becks Wilson said not having a health visitor meant having to arrange visits to the GP instead
Between March and May 2025, the health board, which covers Bridgend county, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf, carried out 6,140 visits, which dropped to 909 in the same period in 2026.
Mothers Matter said the situation was putting a strain on its small team and making it difficult to retain staff and volunteers.
Tracy Sweetland-Hodges, who works for the charity, said demand had "doubled if not tripled" and its two support workers were "inundated every morning with a long list of referrals from across the borough".
She added: "There's not enough hours in the day to help everybody."
"Weekly we have concerns around safeguarding children that we support through our services.
"Even though we support the health visitors it's putting people under undue stress and it's very concerning for our families within our communities at a very very difficult time where everything else is against the odds for them as well"
Tracy Sweetland-Hodges from Mothers Matter said the charity had concerns about the safeguarding of children it supported
Health visitors have said they are aware of the risk to families, but it was for the health board to resolve.
"There are real risks when we are not in work and within local communities," said Unite's Kerry Parry.
"This could be easily resolved by the health board today."
Melani Smith has been a health visitor for 29 years and started working as an NHS nurse 42 years ago. She has never been on strike.
"In a phone call you won't see a punch hole in a door or the sadness on a mother's face, you won't see that the baby's crying and the mum is disengaged and doesn't know what to do," she said.
"It's shocking for me that it has come to this."
Six months into the strike, health visitor and Unite rep Joanne Penny said the union was helping workers financially, but families were under strain.
"People's lives have been put on hold, so whereas normally you would plan things with your family, especially through the school holidays, this has been restrictive to a lot of families."
The union also said it was concerned that families may be particularly vulnerable during the summer holidays as children are not being seen by teachers in school.
Melani Smith has been a health visitor for 29 years and started working in the NHS as a nurse 42 years ago
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Our members are demanding what is right and what is fair and they will have the full backing of Unite in their fight to be paid at the appropriate level for their skills and experience."
The union called for the health board's director of human resources to be sacked for "castastrophic mismanagement" of the dispute and said the Plaid Cymru government needed to take action after making an election promise to resolve the dispute.
The Welsh government said it recognised the concerns of staff, adding that this "regrettable situation should not have occurred in the first place".
It added that health minister Mabon ap Gwynfor had held talks with health board chairman Jonathan Morgan and "expects both parties to get back round the table to find a solution".
A spokesperson said Morgan confirmed the Cwm Taf Morgannwg board had been "reassured" that the risks linked to the strike were being properly managed.
The health board said: "Our priority during this period of industrial action is the safety and accessibility of services provided to families across Cwm Taf Morgannwg.
"To keep services safe and ensure we can support families with more complex and urgent needs, a single point of access has been established.
"This provides families with access to advice, guidance and support from our health visiting teams, with inquiries typically responded to within two hours."
