Courts

Pregnant Lawyer Finishes Hearing After Her Water Breaks In Courtroom

'The judge was kind of freaking out,' she said of the experience.

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You’re 38 weeks pregnant with your first child but your client has been accused of murder, so you find yourself in court for a preliminary hearing on the case. In fact, you’re in courtrooms so often that you’ve joked with friends and family about hoping that you don’t give birth in one. And then, it happens — your water breaks in the middle of a hearing. What do you do?

You finish the hearing without taking a recess before going to the hospital and giving birth to a healthy baby boy.

Meet criminal defense trial attorney Marni Jo Snyder, 39, who opened her own firm after stints at the Defender Association of Philadelphia and Fox Rothschild. Last week, Snyder was in the middle of defending a client alongside her husband and law partner, Stephen Stewart, Jr., 32, when her water broke. “I didn’t panic because he was there to calm me down,” Snyder said during an interview with TODAY Parents. Here are some additional details on what happened next:

After checking to make sure she was OK, Stewart took over, passing a note to the court staff to let them know the situation. Within minutes, Snyder said, the whole courthouse knew what was going on, with reactions that ranged from asking if they should call 9-1-1 to asking if Snyder could finish the rest of the hearing.

Because she was not in pain or experiencing contractions, Snyder told the judge she wanted to move forward without taking a recess and finish hearing evidence in the case since they only had one witness left.

“The judge was kind of freaking out,” said Snyder with a chuckle.

Once the hearing was over, Snyder, who’d been seated for much of the hearing, stood up, staining her shoes with an outpouring of amniotic fluid before heading to the hospital. “We were the only ones coming into Labor and Delivery in a custom suit and a dress and ruined shoes,” she said.

Snyder gave birth to Stephen Stewart, III, on October 15. “I always figured he would come to court with us eventually, but I thought it would be a little bit different.”

Congratulations to Marni Jo Snyder on her new baby boy, and kudos for showing the world and legal profession that women can and will do anything in the name of justice.

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When her water broke in the courtroom, this attorney finished her hearing [TODAY]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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