Mum gives birth then walks in graduation less than 24 hours later
Bec Oakes
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@hannahpaigern
Think you've had a busy day? You might want to sit down for this one.
Dr. Abby Bailiff recently received her doctorate degree and gave birth to her first child within a mere 24 hours.
The 28-year-old from North Carolina was due to give birth to a baby boy on 27 April, but fate decided otherwise.
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With each day that passed after her due date, Abby became more nervous about her upcoming graduation ceremony from the UNC Greensboro School of Nursing, which was scheduled for 4 May.
"Every day past 40 weeks I was like, 'Oh gosh. This is getting closer and closer,'" she told Good Morning America.
She ended up getting induced on 2 May because doctors were concerned about the development of the baby's lungs. Abby delivered her son, Bodie, on 3 May, at 3:08 pm. She said the delivery was smooth, without any complications.
"It was not the original plan to be that close to graduation... but Bodie had other plans," she said.
The mother and son stayed in hospital overnight, before being discharged on the morning of 4 May.
"I was still debating on whether I was going [to graduation] or not, because I didn't want to be, like, a bad mom and just up and leave him right when I got home," Abby explained.
"But around 1:30, I was like, 'I think I should really do this.' My sister and mom were here, and they were like, 'Well, let's get you ready.'"
Less than two hours later, at 3pm, the ceremony started and Abby walked across the stage after graduating from UNCG's doctor of nursing practice program, while her husband and newborn son watched from home via FaceTime.
"Once I got there and I walked in, I was like, I'm so glad I came," she recalled. "It was an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. I can't even describe the feeling I felt. I was just overjoyed."
Dr. Bailiff completed the doctor of nursing practice program, while also working full-time as a registered nurse, completing the last stage of the program in the final months of her pregnancy with Bodie.
She took and passed her board exam on May 1, just two days before giving birth.
"l worked really hard to do it all and to accomplish my dreams and goals," she said. "And it was all for Bodie."
Abby's story went viral when her sister posted a video on TikTok showing all she had accomplished, captioned, "POV: you become a mom & a doctor in the same 24 hours."
The video caught her off guard.
"At the moment, I was just like, I'll just go and do it, and then when my sister made the video, it just kind of put everything in perspective."
She added, "I just felt like a superhero.
"Women are just so capable of doing whatever we can to accomplish our goals and still be a mom and still have career goals as well. So, it was really cool to watch."