For some women, those first few months with their newborn is a chance to bond with their baby and to watch over them as they grow. But for working mothers — especially those with little to no maternity leave — it’s a much different story. TikToker Rebecca Shumard, who goes by @edensmomma10_12 online, recently went viral after sharing that she had to return to work at 12 days postpartum. And now due to staffing issues at the hospital where she works, it’s been nearly impossible to spend time with her preemie newborn who is in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU.
The 26-year-old medical assistant and exercise physiologist shared her story in a video full of emotion.
In the footage from December 7, the new mom can be seen crying while she’s trying to get work done. Apparently, transitioning back to work after a mere 12 days of maternity leave has been just as hard as one would think.
“P.O.V. you have to return to work 12 days after having a premature baby at 27 weeks, so that when she is eventually discharged from the NICU you can spend what little maternity leave you have with her,” she wrote in the video’s caption.
She’s been trying to pump breast milk every three hours, but her hospital is “understaffed.”
“Your milk supply is d[i]minishing at 8 weeks postpartum,” she continued. “Will you even have milk available when she gets home?
“What do other NICU parents do?” she wondered. “How can anyone afford to stay home during a NICU stay? How can anyone handle the guilt when you have to work and can’t be with your baby?
“This. Is. America.” she wrote at the video’s end.
More than 2.8 million people have watched Shumard’s video, and many people were angry on her behalf.
"And people are still screaming 'greatest country ever if u don’t like it leave' some of us want to fix it [but we] just don’t know how," one person explained.
"To all the boomers asking why they don’t have grandkids. This is why. This and the mountain of medical debt from having a baby," another commenter wrote.
“'Tell me you live in America without telling me'… we have the absolute worst maternity leave in the world," is how someone else put it.
Other people just wanted to lift her up.
"Remember babe. If your milk diminishes it’s not a failure. Ya baby can drink formula. You’re doing your best," one person reminded her.
"Girl, take those breaks every 3 hrs. It’s not your responsibility to make sure they are staffed. It’s your job to take care of you and your baby," someone else wrote.
"Pumping breaks is a protected right of a mother. There is no set amount of times or length, whatever mom needs, let them sort out the staffing needs," a third commenter urged.
Speaking with In The Know, Shumard explained she was frustrated when she made the video because she never expected her maternity leave to go like this.
“My expectations of maternity leave were, this is the time to spend with your baby, and it’s going to be obviously a learning curve,” Shumard told In The Know. But that was far from the reality.
“You spend those short six weeks with them," she continued, "if that’s what it is that you get, and during that time you are creating a schedule that works for the baby that changes daily, hourly.”
Not to mention recovering from, you know, giving birth.
"Those six weeks turn into minutes real quick,” she explained.
Unfortunately, Shumard's story is a common one.
The US doesn’t have a federally mandated paid family leave, which means many parents have to soldier on while caring for their newborns at home.
In Shumard’s case, she was referring to six weeks of partially allotted paid time off she was given for women who give birth vaginally. Women who give birth via C-section get more time off, about eight weeks, but regardless it isn’t exactly the same thing as having a full break.
Shumard’s partner was only able to get off two weeks for family leave, meaning that both parents are pulling double duty while caring for their daughter, Eden.
“I was tired because I had only had like four hours of sleep the night before, from having gone from work to the NICU to home to commute to work. So I was at my point of exhaustion and just rushing around, finishing on my lunch break, getting ready for this next patient. And I just broke down,” the mom said of her now-viral video.
She said that she now realizes she most likely was suffering from postpartum depression.
She told In The Know that after the video she received a flood of support from people online — even Venmo and PayPal donations, which has allowed her to extend her maternity leave until April.
“Without that, I would be going back to work in like two weeks,” Shumard said. “And she’s still a newborn, cognitively and developmentally. She’ll be alive and out of the womb for three months next Wednesday. But really, she is only 39 weeks and two days gestation.”
Shumard also shared that after 72 days spent in the NICU, Eden was finally discharged and went home on December 27.
“I don’t know how to really just get across how thankful I am,” she told the news outlet. “I have to really share that with everyone on TikTok. It’s a platform that I’ve seen do this for people. And, like I said in the other video, it shouldn’t. It shouldn’t have to. That shouldn’t be the job of these people, but they have changed my life."
