Woman attends her doctorate graduation ceremony within 24 hours of giving birth: 'A superhero'

The human body requires time to heal after giving birth to a child. It might even take days for them to feel stronger again. But, kudos to Andy Baliff, who gave birth to her first child and then attended her graduation ceremony within 24 hours, according to Good Morning America. She reportedly delivered her son Bodie on May 3 at 3:08 pm. Her due date was April 27, but with each day that passed, she started to get more nervous about her upcoming graduation ceremony from the UNC Greensboro School of Nursing which was scheduled for May 4.

"Every day past 40 weeks, I was like, 'Oh gosh. This is getting closer and closer,'" said Bailiff. Finally, she was induced on May 2 because the doctors were worried about the development of the baby's lungs. "It was not the original plan to be that close to graduation... but Bodie had other plans," she said. Baliff's delivery went smoothly without any issues.

She and her child were at the hospital overnight and the next morning, on May 4, they were discharged. "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," Bailiff said. "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.'"

In less than two hours, Baliff arrived at her graduation ceremony, which began at 3 pm. It was exactly 24 hours after she had given birth to Bodie. While Baliff's husband and Bodie watched the ceremony through FaceTime, she walked across the stage after graduating from UNCG's Doctor of nursing practice program.

She said that once she reached the location, she was "glad" that she made it. "It was an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. I can't even describe the feeling I felt. I was just overjoyed," said Baliff. The new mother shared that while she was doing her three-year doctor of nursing practice program, she was also working as a registered nurse. She often worked overnight shifts so that she could attend school during the day. She finished the last part of her program, clinical, while still in the final month of her pregnancy.

That's not all. Just two days before the delivery on May 1, Baliff also gave and passed her board exam. "l worked really hard to do it all and to accomplish my dreams and goals," she said. "And it was all for Bodie." Her college is also proud of her achievement. Debra J Barksdale, Dean of the UNCG School of Nursing, said that Baliff's commitment to attend the ceremony is a testimony to her "passion and dedication."

Barksdale said in a statement, "The commencement ceremony represents the start of a new role or career. The fact that Dr. Abby Bailiff felt so compelled to attend her ceremony after years of study for her DNP degree represents her resilience, perseverance, passion, and dedication to her school, classmates, and family."

It was Baliff's sister, Hannah Allison (@hannahpaigern), who posted a video on TikTok about what the new mother had achieved. The video is captioned, "POV: you become a mom and a doctor in the same 24 hours."

Baliff was caught off guard when she saw the video showing all she had done. "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," Bailiff said, adding, "I just felt like a superhero."