Woman finishes college finals from hospital bed while in labor

Nayzia Thomas has her eyes on the prize, or in her case, a college degree — and not even labor is slowing her down. The college sophomore recently went viral after tweeting a photo of herself completing a final while in labor.

Thomas studies psychology at Johnson County Community College in Kansas City, Mo., and, like most college kids, is wrapping up the semester. She stayed in school until she was 39 weeks pregnant and even aimed to finish her final exams before her son came into the world. But babies are on their own timelines, and Thomas went into labor ahead of schedule.

Instead of putting off her final psych exam and getting an “incomplete” on her grade sheet, she decided to finish the assignment.

“It wasn’t due until the end of the week — finals week is Dec. 11 to tomorrow — but my goal was to try to have everything done before,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “[I thought] ‘before all this gets crazy let me hurry up and finish this final.’”

So that’s exactly what she did. Thomas completed her major’s final on dissociative identity disorder while sitting in a hospital bed ready to give birth. Then she gave birth to her son, Anthony Johnson, on Dec. 12 at 1:30 p.m. She had some complications during birth, but is doing well now.

She says her mom snapped the photo because she thought it encompassed who her daughter is.

“School is so important to me,” she said, explaining that she was working three jobs and going to summer classes when she found out about her pregnancy. “I didn’t want [the pregnancy] to be in the way. That’s what people expect. You’re a teen mom, you’re a young mother. That’s why my mom took that picture. It shows [I] follow through.”

Thomas did not expect the tweet to go viral, but so far, it has gotten over 93,000 likes and 18,000 retweets. Clearly it hit a nerve: According to a 2014 study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 26 percent of all college undergraduates, mostly women, have a child dependent on them. And without finances or a proper support system, it’s not easy.

Thomas plans to take a month off, during her winter break, to care for her newborn and then will hit the books again next semester. She’ll take 15 credits and work with her boyfriend and their support system to care for Anthony while she completes her degree. But it’s a sacrifice she is willing to make.

“My mom was a single mom,” she said. “We’re all three in school and getting our degrees.”

Looks like little Anthony has a lot live up to. His mom carried him, gave birth to him, and still managed to get a 3.5 GPA for the semester.

Congrats to the new family!

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