An aspiring lawyer took multitasking to a whole new level when she went into labor during day one of the bar exam on Oct. 5. Not only did she complete the exam, but she delivered a healthy baby boy before sitting for the second day’s test from the hospital.
“I PASSED,“ Brianna Hill wrote in her post. ”I am SO happy I get to be a lawyer officially and am so thankful that I got here. Now, I am going to go celebrate with my cute little family.”
Brianna, 28, graduated from the Loyola University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois, in May. She had known for months that she would sit the July bar exam while pregnant with her first child. However, due to the pandemic, the exam was pushed back to October.
As universities have shifted into remote learning to allow for home isolation, so have many examination formats. The bar exam currently comprises four 90-minute sections, completed over two days. To eliminate the possibility of cheating, candidates are supervised and must sit in front of their computers for the duration of the exam.
Hill said she was a little panicked; she then took her break, got herself cleaned up, and called her husband, midwife, and mom. Her midwife gave assurances that she had plenty of time. With immense resolve, and bearing through her contractions, Hill returned to the screen.
Hill and her husband, Cameron Andrew, made it to West Suburban Hospital in Oakpark in the early evening, and their baby, Cassius Phillip, was born just after 10 p.m, reported CNN. However, the new mom knew she had another task to complete.
Cameron and the hospital team made the day two of the bar exam possible. Hill was loaned an empty room on the ward with a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, and she even nursed her baby during breaks.
“I took part of the exam sitting on towels because my water had broken and the other part sitting on an ice pack because I had given birth the night before,” Hill wrote in her Dec. 1 Facebook post.
“I was told to medically withdraw after the first day because there would not be a way for me to finish in the hospital. I hemorrhaged after birth and took the second day of the test while anemic,” she wrote.
Having cleared the test, Hill remains eternally grateful for the people who supported her through an extraordinary experience. Today, the proud mom and her well-wishers are celebrating her success.
“I have the best freaking support system ever ... I recognize I am not the only one who went through difficult circumstances to complete this stupid test and I strongly feel it is not an accurate reflection of competence, mostly privilege,” she wrote.
