If anyone asks Kristen Cuneo how she “enjoyed the vacation” during her maternity leave, she has the perfect response. The new mom, who works for a tech company in the San Francisco area, created a data visualization showing every single diaper change and feeding she did in the first seven weeks after her daughter, Autumn, was born earlier this year.
Cuneo designed the presentation using data compiled in a baby habit-tracking app she and her husband, Michael DiBenigno, started using when the baby was a newborn. And just a few seconds into the visualization, the data points take up the entire screen. “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,” the new mom says in the presentation to her coworkers. “The real kicker is when it happens … 24 hours a day.”
After sharing the visualization with her colleagues who asked what maternity leave was like, her husband shared it on TikTok and it quickly went viral. Cuneo says she feels lucky to have gotten a “very generous” five months of maternity leave and she is grateful that her presentation helped others “feel so seen and heard.” Commenters on TikTok relate to the nonstop workload new parents deal with and offer their support.
HT: GMA!