Nobody Deserves an ‘A’ as Much as the Mother Who Took Her Final Exam While in Labor

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Photo: Facebook/Shanell Brinkley-Chapman

Labor is a monster. It goes on forever, and it hurts so badly that the feeling of having one’s vagina ripped open from the inside by a small creature’s head is a relief in comparison with the pain of contractions. And that’s why this 21-year-old mother and college student from Middle Georgia State University deserves an A and probably some kind of medal, because she took a two-hour psych final while in the throes of active labor, and she actually finished the exam early.

There are a lot of things a person can do in the early stages of labor. I think I wrote three blog posts and laid out an article for a webzine after my contractions started, but that was all several hours before water breakage or going to the hospital. But according to Yahoo Parenting, Tommitrise Collins’ water broke on November 12, and she was having contractions every three minutes. Her baby was coming, and the professor almost certainly would have given her an extension for some seriously extenuating circumstances, but Collins did not want to have to deal with a final exam hanging over her head while she was trying to care for a newborn, so she just went ahead, “put the pain to the side,” and took the exam anyway, which is exceedingly badass.

Collins reportedly had two hours to finish her exam, and she says she finished it in 90 minutes of work.

Collins’ sister took a picture of her in the hospital, wearing a cap and a gown and hooked up to monitors, and Collins has her laptop open and a look of intense concentration on her face. She looks like she’s intent on finding the answer as quickly as possible before the next contraction comes.

With focus like that, it’s no wonder Collins is so good in school. She reportedly has a 3.6 GPA and is studying criminal justice.

The photo has since been shared over 15,000 times on Facebook.

After a 20-hour labor, Collins gave birth to an exceptionally beautiful little baby, and she says she’s been loving every minute of it since. She did wind up passing the exam taken while in labor, but she says she decided to retake it afterwards to see if she could get a higher score if she took the test while not actively delivering a human being into the world. Collins says she wound up getting a B in the class.

”[My daughter] is my life now, and the way I look at it is, she will always have me to depend on, so my goals will not be put on hold,” Collins said. ”I don’t want to just barely make it by, I want my child to live comfortably, and I want to show people that just because I am considered a young mother doesn’t mean I have to be considered a bad mother.”

She sounds like a really good mom to me. And also a very good student. Nothing says “dedication” like taking a psych exam in active labor.

Photo: Facebook/Shanell Brinkley-Chapman

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