Meteorologist mom carrying her baby live on-air wins hearts during weather forecast

Editor's note: This article was originally published on February 11, 2022. It has since been updated.

People tuning into the weather forecast on WDJT were in for a pleasant surprise as meteorologist Rebecca Schuld brought her baby along for the forecast. The unplanned appearance of baby Fiona on-air won the hearts of viewers and people on the internet. New mom, Rebecca had just returned to work following her maternity leave and her baby woke up from sleep, forcing Rebecca to make the split-second decision of taking Fiona with her to the forecast. Rebecca Schuld also had bad news to deliver with a storm brewing, but Fiona sure did help ease the audience through the forecast as well, reported CBS News. “I thought she could help me with tonight’s first weather that’s going to be plenty unpleasant, right?” Schuld said.

Fiona was quiet and just held on to her Mom throughout the forecast, causing no interruption whatsoever. Schuld calmly handled her 13-week-old daughter, who served as the perfect foil, as her Mom delivered the weather forecast. The meteorologist gave a snowy forecast and even incorporated her daughter into the matter, showing the layers of clothes she was wearing to brave the cold. “She’s prepared. She’s got one of her good thick blankies here for that cold weather that’s coming up tonight,” said Schuld during the forecast while adjusting her clothes. Fiona kept nodding off and Schuld added that she had just woken up from sleep.

Schuld is working from the safety of her basement with the help of a green screen after returning to work from maternity leave. The decision to include Fiona was made just minutes before the forecast. As Schuld prepared for the next forecast, Fiona woke up, leaving Schuld scrambling and multitasking. With her baby awake, Schuld wondered if she could bring Fiona on-air as well and asked her producer. “I go over to my Greenwall. I’m holding her and our producer is like, ‘Oh, your baby, is she gonna make an appearance?’” she told Yahoo Life. “I was very confident she was going to behave because she just took a long nap so I knew she’d be happy. I said, ‘Sure!’”

Fiona 'played' her part to a tee as she kept quiet throughout the forecast and the meteorologist and her little assistant went viral. Schuld later tweeted that she and Fiona were “shining a light on what real life actually looks like, trying to do it all and how Covid has changed the way we conduct work.” She also spoke about projecting the image of a strong working woman while having to multitask and deal with the baby. “We’re supposed to put on this certain face,” she explained. “For a split second, I felt guilty about it and I don’t know why. When I sat and thought about it, it’s like, why am I guilty? This is what everyone else is also doing. They work, their kids are sick, or their kids are crying in the background,” she said. “It’s always a challenge when you have kids in the mix, but that’s what so many of us are doing every day. So why are we hiding them?” Schuld's multitasking also highlighted the need for more workplaces to be accommodative to working mothers that extend way beyond maternity leave. 

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is another woman who made headlines for bringing her infant baby to work, and work, in this case, was the UN. The New Zealand Prime Minister made history by being the first world leader to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting with her baby, in 2018. Ardern arrived with her then-three-month-old daughter Neve for the meeting and played with her before giving a speech at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit, reported The Guardian. Ardern’s partner Clarke Gayford held the three-month-old baby on his lap while she gave her speech. When asked about juggling parenthood and the prime ministership, she replied it had “met my expectations.” New Zealand also had rules to cover the costs of a nanny on overseas assignments for ministers and the Prime Minister. However, Ardern paid out of her pocket for Neve's trip at the time. Gayford later shared an image of Neve's security pass which reads "first baby." He then wrote, “I wish I could have captured the startled look on a Japanese delegation inside UN yesterday who walked into a meeting room in the middle of a nappy change. Great yarn for her 21st (birthday).”