March 25th will forever be marked in the memory of American Tamiah Brevard-Rodriguez, from New Jersey (USA). On this special date, the Rutgers University student welcomed her baby and defended her doctoral thesis. She did not imagine that she would have this experience, since she was eight months old when she went into labor.
“I was physically prepared for a pregnancy, but mentally my mind wasn’t focused on a baby,” she said in an interview with the broadcaster WABC-TV. Tamiah had already planned her presentation, which aimed to examine the standards faced by black women on college campuses historically attended by white people. However, her plans took a new turn when her water broke.
At the time, Tamiah’s wife ran to get the car after the contractions increased. The trip to the hospital was a race against time. “The doula was trying to tell me not to push, just breathe, and I was thinking, ‘This baby is coming,” her mom recalled. After the birth of the little one, mother and son underwent a medical evaluation and were found to be healthy.
As she was already prepared for her presentation, Tamiah presented her defense around seven hours after little Enzo came into the world. “I thought I could do it, I was prepared, I made some final adjustments and I conducted the study,” she said. The student stated that she just needed a nap, a shower and a moment to compose herself. People only learned that she had given birth after the successful defense was completed.
