In four years, I've taken maternity leave twice. That's 18-months' worth of woman-hours out of the workforce and a lot of money spent on nappies and not topping up my superannuation.
Soon, I'll take maternity leave, or to be gender-neutral, paid-parental leave, for a third baby. This time I've pledged to pay myself enough super to match every dollar of those $33 nappy packets that I buy.
![If you use disposable nappies, the cost can run to $66 a week.](/web/20161207170011im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/2/e/5/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt2dxy.png/1480892515303.jpg)
That's two jumbo packs a week costing up to $66 and yes, it takes into account those bulk purchases I'll make when items are on sale.
I'm paying myself superannuation from our family's small business, which I work on part time alongside my writing career.
My decision to pay super is not because I think it's the be-all-and-end-all of solutions to save for retirement, but because it's relatively easy to do and I want to help my funds keep growing.
I also like property and like many Australians see paying off the mortgage as part of retirement planning.
Long-term cash savings accounts aren't offering attractive returns right now given that the official benchmark cash rates sits at a record low of 1.5 per cent. Among the best according to RateCity is a 3 per cent maxi saver with St George or Bank of Melbourne.
But the bigger issue for me is awareness of the gap in the retirement savings of men and women in superannuation.
ASIC's MoneySmart website says in 2013-14, the average Australian woman aged 60-64 had $138,150 in super savings which was less than half that of the average man and hardly enough to live comfortably in retirement, especially with life expectancy increasing on medical advances.
Even if you think such figures are hyped-up by super funds to entice savers to put more money in the $2 trillion national retirement pool, the numbers still reflect an underlying inequity in the country's retirement framework.
This inequity has yet to be adequately addressed by policy makers, with super contributions not a compulsory part of most employer or government parental leave schemes.
As more men take time out of the workforce with extended parental leave or work part-time after having children, they too will face the same challenges.
So how can you top up your superannuation?
When it comes to super, you can either make concessional (before-tax) or non-concessional (after-tax) contributions up to a certain amount governed by the Tax Office, every year.
My nappy-matching contributions will be concessional and paid by the main family business, of which I intend to draw a small wage as my negotiated parental leave after baby three arrives.
I anticipate my quarterly super contributions being $769.50, which allows for about $64 a week in a nappy matching payment.
This figure is equivalent to 9.5 per cent of a gross quarterly salary of $8100, which reflects my work contribution to this business.
Short of having a small business and organising the payment of your superannuation, there are some other options available to people who want to keep adding to their super while on parental leave.
These include negotiating with your employer before taking parental leave to pay you super, or if that's not successful asking your employer to contribute to your super, in before-tax dollars, by reducing your after-tax parental leave payment.
Super splitting before-tax concessional super contributions with a spouse is also an option, but it requires both partners to have the talk and consider superannuation earnings as a joint investment.
It's important to note here that where a person earns $37,000 or less in a financial year, they may also be entitled to the government's co-contribution up to $500 for low-income earners.
"Where one partner in a committed relationship is receiving contributions from their employer or making personally deductible contributions to their superannuation fund, they can elect to allocate up to 85 per cent of their super payments to their partner," explains HLB Mann Judd wealth manager Lindzi Caputo.
"The partner receiving the employer super is able to split concessional contributions, which include superannuation guarantee and salary sacrifice amounts paid by the employer or contributions for which a personal tax deduction is also claimed."
Another strategy would be to make use of the tax offset for spouse super contributions. This is where the higher income earning spouse can receive a tax offset of up to $540 for contributing up to $3000 to the lower income earning spouse's superannuation account. Legislation was also recently passed to increase the income threshold to $37,000 from $10,800.
There are various rules around age limits and yearly time frames for doing super splitting, and paying yourself superannuation.
So just like my nappy-matching super pledge, it's best to do your homework around the rules first and consider how it applies to your personal situation first.
Bianca Hartge-Hazelman, former Fairfax Media journalist, now founder of the online women's money magazine financy.com.au.