Mum presents data to prove maternity leave was not a holiday
By Madhurima Haque|
We all know parental leave is no walk in the park, but one mum has gone a step further, gathering data to prove her point.
Mum Kristen Cuneo tracked every nappy change, breastfeed, and bottled feed for the first seven weeks since the birth of her daughter, Autumn. The resulting graph, which she titled: Coworkers asked what maternity leave was like, is very busy, to say the least.
"Objectively, it's a lot. And every data point took time, ranging from five minutes for a diaper change to 30 minutes for a feeding on average," she says in the TikTok video featuring the graph.
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"The real kicker is when it happens. 24 hours a day."
Viewers of the video were impressed with the visual representation of the reality of maternity leave - congratulating the mother for "data mining the stuff that matters".
"THIS is why we need more women in STEM!" said one. "Can we send this to Congress to assist in the push for federal parental leave?"
"All while recovering from a major medical procedure! Mums of newborns are absolutely amazing!" another person wrote.
"And that does not include laundry, bathing, well baby checkups, getting baby to sleep, fussy baby, or the fact that the baby needs to be held constantly."
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This is not the first time the new parents have used data to express what life with a baby is like. Cuneo's husband, Michael DiBenigno, also shared data from the first seven weeks of their daughter's life, this time highlighting her changes and habits in a graph he titled "The Wringer".
In an interview with Mashable, the couple spoke about how data can make these everyday parenting experiences more visible.
"The labour and love of raising children has often been thought of as invisible. What I love about the use of data in this case, is that in a sort of a weird way, it just helps validateกญ There might be people who don't feel seen and heard, because the work that they're doing is not seen. So I love that the data is able to make it feel more visible," Cuneo said.
"It's the same data set that I've had and presented, but it's different when it's coming from Kristen's voice and from her perspective," DiBenigno added.
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