from the diary can be used to check or resolve anomalies in the actigraphic data
(Sadeh 2011 ). At the same time, a respondent’s sleep diary represents their sleepas
they experienced it. This may be valuable information to understand the impact of
sleep disruption. Actigraphy is the objective sleep measurement most often used in
conjunction with subjective methods, although psychomotor vigilance tests and
multiple sleep latency have also been used in this way.
Having reviewed the objective and subjective methods available for assessing
parental experiences of tiredness and fatigue, we are left with the sense that existing
objective measurements and subjective scales do not accurately represent the
experience of Baby-Lag. Yet sleep (or the lack of it) is a key preoccupation for new
parents. Methods for better understanding and assessment of tiredness and fatigue
during new parenthood could be helpful in preparing parents to understand how
Baby-Lag might affect them, to anticipate which parents might have difficulty in
coping and to assist researchers in assessing which interventions are most effective.
In the remainder of this chapter, we therefore use data from our own primary
research into maternal experiences of coping with nighttime infant care in order to
clarify how mothers experience and perceive Baby-Lag, and suggest how
researchers might develop new approaches to measuring this invisible cost of
maternity.
Women’s Experiences of Tiredness and Fatigue
In focus groups conducted with women from three mother and baby groups (MBG),
one young mothers support group (YMSG), two breastfeeding support groups
(BFSG), and one primary school mothers group (PS) located in the North East and
East Midlands regions of England (described in Rudzik and Ball 2016 ), the issue of
tiredness and fatigue came up spontaneously in response to questions about post-
partum infant and maternal sleep. Many participants used dramatic language to
convey how difficult it was to experience inadequate sleep for long periods. Several
participants in different groups used terms like‘nightmare’and‘hellish’to describe
their experiences.
MBG3-B: [Atfirst it] could be a nightmare because you’re supposed get some sleep
during night and the baby wakes up during night and the baby thinks it’s daytime
for him for playing.
MBG1-4: Ifind it a nightmare feeding him and picking him up and putting him
back and so forth [through the night].
One participant with an older child alluded to the shift in perspective that came
once she was through the period of extended sleep disruption.
PS-D: I think unless you’re right in the middle of it you, I think...kind of the
edge has come off. With [my older daughter] I can, if I can look deep into my brain
I can remember how hellish it was but even now I think‘Oh it wasn’t that bad’.
38 A.E.F. Rudzik and H.L. Ball