That's what you call a Double First! Mother sits Cambridge final exams 28 HOURS after giving birth to first child - and gets a First!

• Isobel Cohen took exams in hospital while baby Beatrice was in intensive care

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Published: 10:20 EST, 2 July 2012 | Updated: 20:23 EST, 2 July 2012

A student has graduated from Cambridge University with first class honours – having sat her final exams only 28 hours after having a baby.

Isobel Cohen, 33, had to leave daughter Beatrice in intensive care while she sat her practical criticism paper in her dressing gown and slippers in hospital.

She then completed her Shakespeare and the Greek tragedies exam the next day in the hospital.

Bright spark: Isobel Cohen said she was 'fixed' on completing her Cambridge English degree, despite being heavily pregnant with her first child, Beatice

Despite the exhaustion of labour and the final weeks of her pregnancy, she secured a first class honours degree in English from the University’s Lucy Cavendish College. Yesterday she admitted giving birth and sitting her finals in the same couple of days was ‘slightly insane’.

She said: ‘I wonder how I held it together and got through them because now I’m into full-blown “nappy brain”. While my concentration and memory were not as good as they might have been, I could still do things I needed to do and retain enough information to write decent essays.

‘At the time it seemed like a perfectly legitimate thing to do but now I look back and think it’s slightly insane.’

Miss Cohen, a former dancer from Cambridge, turned down the opportunity to study at the city’s university when she finished her A-levels.

Double first: Cambridge super-student Isobel Cohen, 33, with newborn baby Beatrice, to whom she gave birth just 28 hours before sitting her final exams

Top priority: Isobel Cohen's baby Beatice, pictured at just a few hours old, was always the talented student's number one priority

But she later took up a place to study English at Lucy Cavendish College. She said the pregnancy in her final year was a ‘total surprise’.

She was offered the chance to apply for a DDH – ‘deemed to have deserved honours’ – instead of attempting her exams, but she decided to go ahead.

‘Maybe I was being desperately obsessive but I knew whatever happened I should be able to get a better result than what the university would give me if I didn’t take the paper,’ she said.

She added that she hoped the baby, like many first-borns – would come late. But a scan showed Beatrice may have had a digestive tract disorder so doctors at Adenbrooke’s Hospital arranged for Isobel to be induced.

New beginnings: High-achiever Isobel Cohen plans to take six months off work to care for Beatrice, before continuing in further academic study

She was born weighing 6lb10oz after a difficult labour. Twenty-eight hours later, at 2pm on May 24, Isobel sat her exam. She said: ‘I was sitting in a hospital room in my gown attached to a catheter. I was feeling quite bruised and it was very painful to sit for three hours.’

Yesterday mother and baby were fit and well and resting at home.

‘I am really lucky,’ she added. ‘Beatrice is doing well and I’ve managed to get the degree I wanted.’

 Dr Stephanie Ellington, senior tutor at Lucy Cavendish College, said: ‘What Isobel has achieved is a phenomenal result – to gain a first class honours on such a tough course, under such remarkable circumstances.’

Now Miss Cohen plans to pursue her interest in writing plays and spend time with baby Beatrice and husband Ewan Campbell, 28, a PhD composition student.

Graduation day: Baby Beatrice slept all the way through Isabel's graduation, but did throw up on her degree results