Illinois mom Brianna Hill has quite the story to tell. The 28-year-old law school graduate was in the middle of taking part one of the two-part bar exam on October 5 when she realized her water had broken, and her baby boy was now on his way. Brianna was taking the test at home, and she told Good Morning America that she had just started the second section when she went into labor.
"I started the second section and 15 to 20 minutes in, I started having contractions. I had already asked for an accommodation to get up and go to the bathroom because I was 38 weeks pregnant and they said I'd get flagged for cheating. I couldn't leave the view of the camera."
Undeterred, Brianna kept taking her test.
Brianna and her husband, Cameron Andrew, headed for the hospital after she finished part one of the test. She refused to stop taking the test at the first signs of labor. "I was determined," she said. "Also, I've never been pregnant before, so I was [thinking], 'I don't know what this feels like.'"
The couple's son, Cassius Phillip Andrew, was born only a few hours later. Both mother and son were doing well, and Brianna was still slated to finish the second part of her test the following day.
So, Brianna being Brianna … that's what she did.
Brianna said that she's most thankful for the staff at the hospital.
"There were all these professional women supporting me and my professional goals, even though I just became a mother and it was their job to support me in that."
She also had unending support from her mom, her husband, and her friends:
"My biggest takeaway is that I have an incredible support system from my mom … I called my husband to tell him my water broke and he said, 'OK, we're going to figure out how you're going to finish this test' and all my law school friends texting saying, 'You got this.'"
Brianna's community quickly rallied around her. One of her professors celebrated the new mom, saying, "My former student/advisee Brianna Hill (now a Loyola Law and Civitas ChildLaw Center graduate) and brand new mom is a superhero!"
Brianna got the results of her test this week: She passed, and now she's a lawyer!
"The past two months I had only been telling myself I had passed because I couldn't let myself go down the road of if I hadn't. Just opening up the email and seeing congratulations, I started crying, my husband started crying, and Cassius was very confused why there was so much yelling."
Brianna didn't consider asking for an exemption from the test, in part because that would have meant she'd have to wait until February to try again. She had already been studying for four months, and she was ready.
She also wasn't sure if she'd even get the exemption.
She told Today, "I was very skeptical that they were going to be very understanding, and then also I had just worked so hard for three years to get to this point."
She continued, "And I had had so many job interviews and had been rejected because I wasn't barred yet, and I had finally gotten a job, and I just wasn't willing to risk this dream job that I had just landed. And I wanted to make my goals."
However, motherhood has given her new perspective:
"Having a baby really puts the bar exam into perspective. It really makes you realize that this is not the end of the world. The end of the world is not having a successful labor and delivery, so I was just like, 'You know what, I've just got to get through this and trust my memory and trust all my hard work that I had been doing the past four months.'"
