Book Review: The Birth of Hope by Jeane Rhodes

06/07/2012 Reviews

The Birth of Hope

By: Jeane Rhodes

Synopsis:

The Birth of Hope is the story of a baby named Hope, from her conception through her birth as the child of teen parents who are in foster care at the time of her conception. Hope’s story is one of coming into this world through parents who, in spite of their age and other challenges, are very attuned to their baby throughout her gestation. This story inspires new awareness of the importance of the prenatal and birth stages of life. You will come to love Hope and her teen parents as you experience the momentous events of her gestation. Her coming changes not only her parents, but the supportive community that forms around them

My Review:

Author of the book, “The Birth of Hope”, Jeane Rhodes has written a book full of hope for young women that find themselves pregnant at an early age! So many times these stories are wrought with a bad situation that turns even worse as the pregnancy progresses.

The book centers around a young woman named Tasha, who while in foster care finds that she is pregnant after having her first sexual encounter. She comes from a family with a long history of issues; a mother who was a prostitute and deep into drugs, serving time in prison and a sister who is now going down the same road as mom. Even though Tasha is in foster care, she had high hopes for her own life – until she found she was pregnant.

Scared to tell her foster parents because she assumed they would be done with her, she finds that they actually support and help her. In addition, the father of the child, Justin, who is also in foster care, wants to step up and help take care of his child as well as marry Tasha.

You follow their story, as the baby, named Hope, develops. Their journey is not always happy and the characters are so well rounded that you actually feel their fear and uncertainty. But, you will leave the story with a new found respect for young people who are going through this and actually step up to the plate!

While reading this book you may find that you change your view about the young girls who end up in this situation as well as the father of the child. Sometimes, it actually works!

I highly recommend this book and it should be on a must read list for young women from 13 yrs old and up!

About the Author:

Jeane Rhodes, Ph.D., is a licensed professional counselor using sandplay as her primary therapeutic tool She teaches online for Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. She formerly served as associate editor of the Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health, and worked in the foster care system as a therapist and in various management capacities. She has also been a yoga instructor, active in local, national, and international yoga organizations. Her masters thesis, titled A Mind Made Visible: Psychotherapeutic Application of Yoga Asana, and brought this experience with yoga into her psychology studies. Interest in pre and perinatal psychology led to interviews with young children regarding their birth memories. Research continued with her Ph.D. dissertation, which explored the prenatal expression of yoga postures and subsequent echoes in the body of prenatal and birth experience. On a very personal level, she was a teen parent herself and brings the emotional reality of that experience to the creation of The Birth of Hope.