being pregnant as a 1L... is it possible? Forum

[D. H2Oman]

As someone who has neither been to law school nor had a baby, I say suck it up and have the little bastard during 1L. How hard can it be? Animals have babies and they don't even have houses.

/thread.

[jks289]

It would seem to me that being pregnant during OCI would be a no-no because, like it or not, i doubt interviewers would look highly on pregnant women to hire for the following summer. Right?

any thoughts?

i, personally, would not put myself at any sort of disadvantage at OCI. it's hard enough.

A unscientific analysis: Like I said before, my sister went through this at HYS fairly recently. At OCI one of the women was visibly pregnant, one was not visible but told the interviewer, and one said nothing. At the time, it was discussed if this would have an impact. There was no difference in SA offers (other than personality matches) and no difference in who was offered a job after 3L. These were high achieving people at the top of their classes, but I really don't think firms based OCI decisions based on pregnancy. Many firms are trying to appear more "family friendly" which really means more "woman friendly." That may not translate to the actual firm culture, but many firms go out of their way to point out woman associates and partners who have children (meanwhile they don't seem to care if a male SA does or not...) in trying to attract women at the top of their classes who they might otherwise lose to a "lifestyle firm."

[NU_Jet55]

As someone who has neither been to law school nor had a baby, I say suck it up and have the little bastard during 1L. How hard can it be? Animals have babies and they don't even have houses.

/thread.

+1

[Kiersten1985]

Hi all--

I'm looking for advice on whether or not it's crazy to be pregnant during your first year of law school. Has anyone here done it? Did it affect your performance in school? Did you have to take off time or were you able to go back to school right away? I'm 26 and married (planning to attend a T5 school in the fall) and would rather not have to wait 3 more years to have children, if possible, but also want to make sure I'm not making a decision that will jeopardize my law school career.

Thanks in advance!

Wow. Please, for the sake of your and your future children's health, either put off law school until you've had your children or put off having children until after top-law-schools.com won't get any easier after law school, but firms can't fire you for having children. However, law schools, can (and will) give you bad grades and bestow you with all the stress you can handle.

dont listen to this. you can't stop your life just because you go to law school. that's not realistic. if it's time to have a baby, it's time to have a goddamn baby. law school will be a large part of your life but it's not going to be your whole life, nor should it be.

Seriously? If I'm paying $200k for a degree you better believe it's going to be my whole life.

OP, put it off or decide on another career path for now. You won't be able to give your pregnancy or law school the attention either deserves.

[danquayle]

Come on people... law school isn't that hard. You're better off having your kids while you're still in school, you have far more free time than you will after you have a job. And I don't think many firms will discriminate against you for having kids. They could just as easily consider you more stable, and that you've already had all the kids you plan on having. If they're one of those firms that won't hire you because you have kids, then they're one of those firms that don't want you to have kids ever.

And for what its worth, the students with kids always seemed to do better on average than the unmarried students without kids. Having kids forces you into a routine and forces you to organize, all of which will have beneficial residual effects on your study habits.

[jcl2]

Being pregnant most likely won't be that big of an issue, but having a newborn will be difficult and I wouldn't want to mix the stress of 1L with the stress of taking care of a newborn. My wife and I had a baby in November, and I put off law school for a year for that reason and am very grateful I did. That said, having a baby sometime later in law school is probably not a bad idea, and may be quit a bit easier than trying to have your first baby early in your legal career.

There seems to be a tendency in our generation for women, especially those with strong professional aspirations, to think that they need to wait until "the right time" to have a baby. Obviously you should have some stability in life before having children, but this "right time" that many women (and men too) seem to imagine just doesn't really exist. I know several couples who waited to finish all of their academic pursuits, get their careers established, and own a home, and now they are in their mid-thirties and struggling to get pregnant. There is never going to be a perfect or easy time in life to have a baby, the second two years of law school are probably as good as any.

Biologically, late twenties is actually kind of late for having a first baby, because of the way adolescence has been extended up through 23-25 or so by our society, we have a pretty narrow window for having children, if you are serious about having a baby delaying too much longer can be a bit risky.

[romothesavior]

Hi all--

I'm looking for advice on whether or not it's crazy to be pregnant during your first year of law school. Has anyone here done it? Did it affect your performance in school? Did you have to take off time or were you able to go back to school right away? I'm 26 and married (planning to attend a T5 school in the fall) and would rather not have to wait 3 more years to have children, if possible, but also want to make sure I'm not making a decision that will jeopardize my law school career.

Thanks in advance!

Wow. Please, for the sake of your and your future children's health, either put off law school until you've had your children or put off having children until after top-law-schools.com won't get any easier after law school, but firms can't fire you for having children. However, law schools, can (and will) give you bad grades and bestow you with all the stress you can handle.

dont listen to this. you can't stop your life just because you go to law school. that's not realistic. if it's time to have a baby, it's time to have a goddamn baby. law school will be a large part of your life but it's not going to be your whole life, nor should it be.

Seriously? If I'm paying $200k for a degree you better believe it's going to be my whole life.

OP, put it off or decide on another career path for now. You won't be able to give your pregnancy or law school the attention either deserves.

+1. And its not just your pregnancy, but the early childhood as well. I'm just a silly male and an 0L, but I know I would not want to devote substantial time to a bawling, shit infested, drooly-faced little rodent at 3 o'clock in the morning while I'm trying to study for final exams. But hey, if that's your thing, go for it. Somebody's gotta set the curve low.

(kidding. Kind of.)

[r6_philly]

Come on people... law school isn't that hard. You're better off having your kids while you're still in school, you have far more free time than you will after you have a job. And I don't think many firms will discriminate against you for having kids. They could just as easily consider you more stable, and that you've already had all the kids you plan on having. If they're one of those firms that won't hire you because you have kids, then they're one of those firms that don't want you to have kids ever.

And for what its worth, the students with kids always seemed to do better on average than the unmarried students without kids. Having kids forces you into a routine and forces you to organize, all of which will have beneficial residual effects on your study habits.

Law school may not be that hard, finishing in the top of the class is much harder. So unless you are ok spending 200k and finishing in the bottom half of the class, you have to really consider giving yourself the best shot at doing well, and not just finishing.

[Hattori Hanzo]

Good stuff for a Hollywood screenplay.

[r6_philly]

+1. And its not just your pregnancy, but the early childhood as well. I'm just a silly male and an 0L, but I know I would not want to devote substantial time to a bawling, shit infested, drooly-faced little rodent at 3 o'clock in the morning while I'm trying to study for final exams. But hey, if that's your thing, go for it. Somebody's gotta set the curve low.

My son wakes up at 3am pretty much on the dot. He needs to be fed again then put back to sleep. We have not had a full night sleep for the last 10 months unless one of us sleeps in a different room without the monitor on. I did all my LSAT study between 1-3 am. My wife gets up at 6 to get our daughter ready for school and then feed the lil one again then goes to school. I get up at 9am when the lil one wakes up again and stay with him until noon, when we switch and I go to school. I average 6 hours a night in 2-3 segments depends on how loud he gets when he wakes up. Make your own conclusions. Although, boop isn't that bad, and the drooly-face is really really cute, so cute that you would do anything for him

[gdane]

I would say just wait. You want to fully concentrate on your studies. You dont want to deal with the effects of pregnancy. Im not sure if irresponsible is the correct term, but it borders on it.

Why such a rush to have a child? What do you want to concentrate on, a child or school? Well, if youre paying big bucks for school, then Id say its much more logical to concentrate on your studies.

Good luck.

[BruinsFan]

At the Cal Western scholar reception one of their students had had her baby right after 1L finals. She was in like the top 10%. Now I realize Cal Western is a TTTT, but it's still a lot of work. She seemed very happy with all of her decisions.

You'd definitely be THE pregnant girl, though.

[kn6542]

Hi all--

I'm looking for advice on whether or not it's crazy to be pregnant during your first year of law school. Has anyone here done it? Did it affect your performance in school? Did you have to take off time or were you able to go back to school right away? I'm 26 and married (planning to attend a T5 school in the fall) and would rather not have to wait 3 more years to have children, if possible, but also want to make sure I'm not making a decision that will jeopardize my law school career.

Thanks in advance!

Wow. Please, for the sake of your and your future children's health, either put off law school until you've had your children or put off having children until after top-law-schools.com won't get any easier after law school, but firms can't fire you for having children. However, law schools, can (and will) give you bad grades and bestow you with all the stress you can handle.

dont listen to this. you can't stop your life just because you go to law school. that's not realistic. if it's time to have a baby, it's time to have a goddamn baby. law school will be a large part of your life but it's not going to be your whole life, nor should it be.

You never NEED to have a baby. This is the dumbest thing I've ever fucking heard.

[djgoldbe]

Wait, can you remind me why it has to be in 1L or else 3 years later? From what I gather 1L is substantially more time consuming and stressful than 2L and certainly 3L (the importance of your grades 1L being more important than the others as well). Seems like you have those 2 years where it would be substantially easier.

[kn6542]

lol look. i never said to stop giving advice. i just said i found it funny that everyone who did were males. i was not arguing no one should ever give advice whether or not they know about the subject.

i don't know where you're getting all the arguments from. someone asked me why it mattered, and i stated that females would know better than males. women who had children would know even more. and a woman who had a child during 1L would know even more.

You said if you are not a woman, you don't know for sure. That is just plain stupid.

Only men are rational enough to make these decisions. Women are too invested in it to think properly.

[Pearalegal]

i rank opinions more or less valuable depending on the experiences which relate to the question. i don't know where you got age from... but in this case gender has to do with it only because a female can get pregnant. and a husband who had children might know better then a woman who never had kids, but i was not ranking opinions based on just gender and age.

looks guys. i really just made one comment on how it was funny that it was all males responding. that is all. i don't know why you're getting all worked up over this. i never said that men can't give advice on it, or shouldn't anyone else.

you didn't respond to anything I said regarding other perspectives besides solely the experience of a woman who has gone through preganacy having just as much importance.

My issue was that you feel as if you know enough to rank the value of such experiences. Wouldn't a husband or child who has experienced a similar situation be just as vital and valuable to OPs decision making?

[soonergirl]

Hi all--

I'm looking for advice on whether or not it's crazy to be pregnant during your first year of law school. Has anyone here done it? Did it affect your performance in school? Did you have to take off time or were you able to go back to school right away? I'm 26 and married (planning to attend a T5 school in the fall) and would rather not have to wait 3 more years to have children, if possible, but also want to make sure I'm not making a decision that will jeopardize my law school career.

Thanks in advance!

forgive me if I repeat anything, but I haven't read through all the (cough) men's responses.

It's impossible to know, because you don't know how you'll carry. I have friends who think pregnancy is the greatest thing ever - they say they've never had more energy or felt better. Others get really sick and say it's hell. Some women work up til two hours before they deliver. Others end up having to quit in their first trimester. I wouldn't want to try it, but then I'm kind of a wuss.

The other thing to consider is whether you want a newborn in your 2L and a toddler in your 3.

[romothesavior]

I'm surprised no one has said this yet, but this decision is not just about you. You have to consider the interests of the child as well. Think of it this way....

-You have a better chance of being in the top of your class without a baby than with one
-Top of your class ----> Better job prospects
-Better job prospects ----> More money and job security
-More $$ and security ----> Better childhood your kid will have

I'm not saying you can't do well in your class without a kid. I'm just saying it is more likely that you will do well when you can devote yourself to your studies rather than to a newborn.

I'm also not saying that you will be some poor broke sap and your kid will turn into a delinquent bastard child. I'm just saying that it makes far more sense to bring a child into the world when you know you have a decent job and some money in the bank.

[soonergirl]

Biologically, late twenties is actually kind of late for having a first baby, because of the way adolescence has been extended up through 23-25 or so by our society, we have a pretty narrow window for having children, if you are serious about having a baby delaying too much longer can be a bit risky.

don't let the men scare you, Mrs. Draper. You're not old.

[Pearalegal]

Biologically, late twenties is actually kind of late for having a first baby, because of the way adolescence has been extended up through 23-25 or so by our society, we have a pretty narrow window for having children, if you are serious about having a baby delaying too much longer can be a bit risky.

don't let the men scare you, Mrs. Draper. You're not old.

Yeah, this is ridiculous. I am the baby of 13 female cousins from 4 aunts on one side of my family and the youngest one of them gave birth is 29. Doesn't look like there will be a record breaker on the horizon, either. My mom had me at 32, and I/she was perfectly healthy. If not a bit high spirited.

Have a baby young if that's what's right for you, but the above is stupid.

[Renzo]

Don't quote this, I'm gonna take it down later

[DoktorZaius]

Let's try to make this more like Yahoo! Answers.

being pregnant as a 1L... is it possible?

Yes, but only if you're a female of child-bearing age with a requisite level of fertility who engages in unprotected sexual intercourse.

[kn6542]

As a father and 1L, I would strongly advise against it 1L year.

Those grades are most important, pregnancy can be really miserable, and having a newborn is worse. Personally, I'd plan on getting knocked up at the end of your 2L summer. You can plan your schedule so that you'll be taking joke classes your last semester, and it would probably be easier/less likely to offend if you arrange to take some time between the end of school and starting your job, as opposed to starting a new job and immediately asking for maternity leave. If my wife doesn't shut up about having another baby that's probably how I'll plan it.

[Renzo]

Biologically, late twenties is actually kind of late for having a first baby, because of the way adolescence has been extended up through 23-25 or so by our society, we have a pretty narrow window for having children, if you are serious about having a baby delaying too much longer can be a bit risky.

don't let the men scare you, Mrs. Draper. You're not old.

Yeah, this is ridiculous. I am the baby of 13 female cousins from 4 aunts on one side of my family and the youngest one of them gave birth is 29. Doesn't look like there will be a record breaker on the horizon, either. My mom had me at 32, and I/she was perfectly healthy. If not a bit high spirited.

Have a baby young if that's what's right for you, but the above is stupid.

You're the baby of 13 cousins and 4 aunts? That's some kinda crazy, horrifying, incestuous gangbang...


No, but seriously, mid-twenties is not old for having kids.

[Renzo]

Don't quote this...

I've killed for less.