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Mom-to-Be Takes College Psychology Exam While in Labor: “I Gotta Do This for My Baby”

Now that’s determination. Tommitrise Collins may have been in labor, but that didn’t stop the mom-to-be from completing a college exam for her psychology course. Collins’ story went viral after her sister Shanell Brinkley-Chapman shared a photo of the Georgia resident taking the test on a laptop from her hospital bed on Nov. 12.

“This is what you call ‘Strong Priorities,’” Brinkley-Chapman wrote on Facebook. “Contractions 3 minutes apart and still takes her Psychology Test! You are going to be a great Mom baby sis!”

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“I need to do this for me. I gotta do this for my baby,” Collins, who is studying criminal psychology at Middle Georgia State University, told The Telegraph of why she was so determined to take the test. “All I kept saying is, ‘You’re not in pain! You really are in pain … just push through it, you’ll be okay. And then my contractions would end, and I’d read my questions real quick, and I figured out the answer real quick. Another contraction started back up, and I’d be like, ‘OK.’”

The new mom, who gave birth to a baby girl named Tyler, told The Telegraph that when she first started the exam, the contractions were about three minutes apart. And by the time she finished the test, they were about a minute apart.

Collins also told TODAY.com that she even emailed her professor before beginning her test. “‘I’m in labor right now and I just wanted to let you know in case I get a bad grade,’” the 21-year-old recalled saying in her message. “I just didn’t want to make up an excuse for not taking it, but I also wanted to keep my GPA up.”

According to Today.com, the single mom needed just 90 minutes of the allotted two hours to take the test, and scored 76 percent. But after her professor saw her story, Collins said she got an email from her teacher, who said she used some of Collins’ extra credit to increase her grade to a B.

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The determined student also told the website that she hopes her story will inspire other single moms. “I hope I showed people that you don’t have to stop achieving your goals just because you end up pregnant,” she said. “She’s not a mistake — she’s a blessing to me, and she’s going to be walking in her mama’s footsteps.”

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