This book provides an intimate and personal view of the lives and lived experiences by adolescent-mothers as they endured the transition of being a teenager to becoming a mother. The author interviewed 12 young mothers, ranging in ages between 18 and 22, who provided insight of what their life was like as a teenager who became pregnant and gave birth.
The twelve young ladies provided detailed descriptions of mixed emotions of depression, enlightenment, loneliness, and sadness, as well as happiness and empowerment. They described in detail the treatment they received from family members, friends, lovers, and other individuals in their lives. They shared heartbreaking stories of being abandon by love ones, experiencing life threatening situations, and rekindling relationships with love ones.
After reading this book, one should get a clearer understanding of the emotional pain teen mothers endure and develop a sense of knowledge of how providing teen-mothers with positive reinforcement, encouragement, and emotional support would help them through one of the most turbulent time of their young lives, which they endure after giving birth.

ability to parent, abortion, absent mother, adaptation, adolescent, adolescent development, adolescent phase, adult roles, alcoholism, altruistic personality, anxiety, attitudes, barriers, Becoming a Mother (BAM) theory, behavioral transformation, biases, bipolar, birth, burden, caregiver, child abuse, child development, child neglect, childbearing, childbearing, childbirth, childbirth experience, childcare, childhood abuse, clinical depression, cluster themes, cognitive ability, community, companionship, competence, conflicting identities, coping mechanisms, counseling, counselor, crisis of adolescence, culture, delinquency, delivery, depression, depression, development, differentiation, drug, dual developmentalism, dysfunction, education, effective parenting, ego, ego, emotions, empathy, expressive-depressive, familial alienation, family, financial resources, healthcare, high-risk lifestyle, hopelessness, hormonal changes, identity crisis, Identity vs. Role Confusion, infant, inter-generational, lived experiences, maladjustment, maternal, maturity, mood swings, Mother Role Attainment Theory, motherhood, Notre Dame Adolescent Parenting Project (NDAPP), ontological assumption, parent, partnerships, phenomenological research, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pregnancy, prenatal, Psychosocial Development Theory, qualitative methodology, relationships, roles, search for identity, security, self empowerment, shame, single mother, single parent, social service, societal expectations, stages of development, teen mother, transition, tribulations, urban environments, urban living, urban mothers, violence, vulnerability, welfare
About the Author: Dr. Ford has a doctorate in Human Services, is a state Licensed Professional Counselor, National Certified Counselor, and is a Registered Play Therapist. She co-owns a community mental health agency and also a residential group home for a teen mothers with her husband.
Dr. Ford has spent over 10 years providing services for teen mothers and their children, including volunteering within public schools, providing housing and programming services to teen-mothers in foster care, and to those homeless and incarcerated young women in state licensed residential homes (Delta House, A Place of Change for teen-mothers).
Dr. Ford is passionate about advocating and helping underdogs and marginalized populations. Her goal is to use her writing and future books to inspire those teen mothers who are feeling down, of little value, and to educate and inspire those who are unaware of the emotional turmoil these young women are experiencing.
Dr. Ford hopes this book will enlighten the professionals who work with teen-mothers to further the understanding of their trials and tribulations, their emotionality, and how it affects their mindset - sometimes permanently. With this knowledge, those in the position to assist or help a teen mother would have greater insight into the teens' mental state to help. The insight in this book offers the ability to improve the young mother's mental and emotional states of being, and to help them avoid the negativity and harmful mental and psychological pressure of being a teen mother.
This is Dr. Ford's first book, which stems from her dissertation, entitled, "Negotiating identities: The transition to motherhood in young urban adolescent mothers." The dissertation focuses on the emotional effects that early childbearing has on the psychosocial development of adolescent-mothers.