NJ mom gives birth in a Maserati — then defends dissertation from hospital bed hours later

Call her Supermom.

Tamiah Brevard-Rodriguez gave birth to her son in the passenger seat of her wife’s speeding Maserati — then calmly defended her doctoral dissertation from her hospital bed hours later.

In the wee hours of April 25, Brevard-Rodriguez, 40, was putting the finishing touches on the PowerPoint she would use to defend her dissertation in education that afternoon.

It was a moment Brevard-Rodriguez, then eight months pregnant, had been working toward for two years.

But out of nowhere, and a month early, “I had that popping sensation that I experienced with my daughter . . . and instantly, I just knew my water had just broken,” Brevard-Rodriguez recalled.

“I’m like, of all days, why today?”

Her wife immediately sprung into action – messaging Brevard-Rodriguez’s academic mentor at Rutgers University to postpone her presentation, and calling family members to come watch the couple’s four-year-old daughter, Aubriel.

“I sorta just locked in, like now the mission is on,” Alyza Brevard-Rodriguez told The Post.

They hopped in their Maserati truck and were headed to a birthing center shortly after 5 a.m. when their doula rerouted them to Hackensack Meridian Hospital, the couple explained.

But while her wife was hitting 120 mph on the Garden State Parkway, Bervard-Rodriguez took “one big grunt” and warned, “he’s coming.”

“I look over, and I see her with this baby in her left hand, and her umbilical cord in the right,” Alyza said with a laugh.

Baby Enzo, at almost 6 pounds and 19 inches, was in pristine health for an infant born four weeks early.

Once the mom and baby were settled in a labor delivery room at the hospital, “I could hear [Alyza] talking to my mentor on the phone about rescheduling the [dissertation] defense. And I was just kind of like, I don’t think I should do that,” Brevard-Rodriguez said.

“Mommy had to get it done. So that’s what I did.

“I took a nap, ate some food, came back, and was ready to rock and roll,” she continued.

Supportive hospital staff kept Enzo in the nursery and put a sign on the door to prevent interruptions, while Alyza made a quick trip home to grab fresh clothes, makeup and the laptop.

At 1 p.m., Brevard-Rodriguez presented her dissertation, which looked at beauty standards for black women in college on predominantly white campuses, to 56 people during an hour-long Zoom call — and hid her maternity ward background until the end.

In that moment and several since, “it’s been a transition from mommy brain to scholar brain,” Brevard-Rodriguez said.

“But just having him, he’s been such a joy. We are in love with him. His sister is in love with him,” she gushed.

This Mother’s Day Brevard-Rodriguez will not only celebrate Enzo’s addition to the family, she will also graduate as a doctor in education from Rutgers.

“I’m really excited [to graduate] because I know that I don’t have to worry about anything else – no more homework, no more papers, no more revisions. But I’m also really excited because I’ll be celebrating with my family. And we’ll have a nice big dinner afterwards,” she said with a chuckle.