Top Law Schools

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!

My civpro professor's wife gave birth to twins THE NIGHT BEFORE his 1L finals started. it's possible, but it will of course be difficult. Being a pregnant 1L is far better than being the mother of a newborn as a 1L I have to believe.

I would just go ahead and get knocked up now, I mean will being pregnant be any easier when working post law school graduation?

mrsdraper wrote: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 law school. Life 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 give you with all the stress you can handle.

Sounds stressful.

NU_Jet55 wrote:

mrsdraper wrote: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.

Sounds irresponsible.

Though I'm not sure this post isn't troll bait.

i love it how every one who responded so far is a male.

erniesto wrote:Sounds irresponsible.

No it doesn't. Don't listen to this girl. ^

erniesto wrote: Though I'm not sure this post isn't troll bait.

certainly not intended to be...

Sexy.

My boss was 8 months pregnant on her first day of law school, had her baby a month later. Repeat: had a BABY during the first semester of law school. She is now partner at a mid-size corporate law firm in the World Financial Center, NYC.

It's possible.

ask your mom and other women in your family how severe their side effects were during their pregnancies. a lot of crazy performance-affecting stuff can happen when you are pregnant... my friend had tingling, numbness, and swelling in her forearms the entire last three months of both of her pregnancies and couldn't work. another person i know had severe nausea for a long time after the usual period of morning sickness... etc. my mom, on the other hand, had no problems with me, and worked full time and took ballet classes all through her pregnancy.

and maybe time the birth for your 1L summer?

I often hear pregnant women refer to their "pregnancy brain", like "oh, I forgot something. oh well, pregnancy brain." Is that real?

GermX wrote:Sexy.

Your stupidity is popping up everywhere I look right now...

To be sure it is possible, but I take it you are asking about whether one can be pregnant and yet this pregnancy does not seriously hurt one's chances of being above median. First off, note that law school has no maternity leave, whereas many law jobs do. But law schools do have summers. So it is all about timing if you are pregnant in law school. You basically have windows of when you can get pregnant and then give birth. Remember too that difficult pregnancies are not unheard off (e.g. the last two months of required bed-rest, or miscarriages--which probably affect performance in a serious way).

finalaspects wrote:i love it how every one who responded so far is a male.

What difference does that make?

If what I hear about Law school is accurate, and what I know about being pregnant is accurate, you shouldn't mix them.

I guess it depends on whether you think you're capable of handling that. I mean, I suppose it's not a priori impossible, but I bet dollars to donuts you end up neglecting either your kids, your studies, or both.

Some women have a really hard time during the first trimester, some don't. My wife gets really sick during the first 4 months, there is no way she can attend school, let alone do well. It gets better/easier during the last 2 trimesters. However, starting 3 weeks or so before the due date, you will end up with sporadic contractions that may or may not be false alarms. You will probably have to rush to the hospital everytime you have intense contractions. We went for false alarm once, some have done it twice. After birth you will need about a week to get back to normal.

So you need to time it well if you want to get pregnant during the school year, you don't want to be sick or have your due date around finals time at the very least. Someone said you should get pregnant now, thats not a bad suggestion. If you spend the first 3 month in early summer, then have your due date around Christmas or right after, that may work well.

Some JD grads told me that 2L and 3L are much easier than 1L, so you may want to consider that. As for after child birth... unless your husband can contribute chuncks of time, it will be tough. I take care of my son (10 months now) in the morning while my wife goes to school. She comes back around noon then I leave for school. We can't afford to take him to daycare because I am only working partime at school, and we don't really want to. It is nice to be able to keep your child out of daycare. My parents are going to be coming to help the next kid we have, probably during my 2L year.

Feel free to PM me if you have more quesitons.

Sounds intense. I understand you don't want to put off having kids for three more years, but maybe put it off until your 2L year? 1L is supposedly the most intense year, and firms only see your 1L grades during the recruitment process. It sounds like a lot to juggle, what with morning sickness and feeling exhausted all the time as you get farther along.

I'm curious what you husband thinks about the situation (your own as well as Mike from the Jersey Shore). If you landed Biglaw would your income overshadow his? Is he happy about this or intimidated?

mrsdraper wrote: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!

I hear 3L is a popular time to do it.

Z3RO wrote:

finalaspects wrote:i love it how every one who responded so far is a male.

What difference does that make?

If what I hear about Law school is accurate, and what I know about being pregnant is accurate, you shouldn't mix them.

I guess it depends on whether you think you're capable of handling that. I mean, I suppose it's not a priori impossible, but I bet dollars to donuts you end up neglecting either your kids, your studies, or both.

because no male knows how it is to be actually pregnant and you're trying to offer advice on something that you can only guess on. all you're offering is hearsay and an opinion (more like a guess) on something that you don't and won't know.

pugalicious wrote:I often hear pregnant women refer to their "pregnancy brain", like "oh, I forgot something. oh well, pregnancy brain." Is that real?

Absolutely. At least in my wife's case. If I have to quantify it, my wife's IQ drops 20 points while her ability to concentrate halves She couldn't finish reading an RC passage while she was pregnant, and now she can test around 165 range. Shame she doesn't want to go to law school, she would probably get in better places than I could lol

finalaspects wrote:because no male knows how it is to be actually pregnant and you're trying to offer advice on something that you can only guess on. all you're offering is hearsay and an opinion (more like a guess) on something that you don't and won't know.

I have a pretty good idea. Read my replies. I am a male.

finalaspects wrote:

Z3RO wrote:

finalaspects wrote:i love it how every one who responded so far is a male.

What difference does that make?

If what I hear about Law school is accurate, and what I know about being pregnant is accurate, you shouldn't mix them.

I guess it depends on whether you think you're capable of handling that. I mean, I suppose it's not a priori impossible, but I bet dollars to donuts you end up neglecting either your kids, your studies, or both.

because no male knows how it is to be actually pregnant and you're trying to offer advice on something that you can only guess on. all you're offering is hearsay and an opinion (more like a guess) on something that you don't and won't know.

I've never had AIDS and I've never gone to law school. So is it unreasonable for me to make the proposition that I wouldn't want to contract AIDS during law school? Is this just hearsay that I can only guess on? (I'm not trying to compare a baby to AIDS please don't yell at me).