DIROSARIA, RACHAELA & CHRIS AAHCC
Affiliated Instructor 2013

Rachaela DiRosaria is a mother of three children, ages 12 years to 18 months, a volunteer and activist for women's birthing and mothering rights.  She enjoys gardening, sewing, vegan cooking, and everything health and nutrition related.  Rachaela has been offering childbirth education and support for over four years and is happy to have the opportunity to touch so many lives.

Rachaela began her journey into natural birthing and parenting after a traumatic birthing experience with her oldest son, Gavin.  The experience made bonding and breastfeeding extremely difficult; it was very hard to overcome these obstacles and to be the mother she wanted to be.  It was then that she learned of all the options that she had missed out on and all the things that she could have planned and prepared for ahead of time to protect herself in the delivery room.

Seven years later, and expecting again, Rachaela and her husband, Chris, decided to take a very active role in their prenatal care.  By taking a series of Bradley Method® classes they learned to work on nutrition and exercise everyday to maintain a low-risk pregnancy, they changed care providers and location to achieve the best support for their desire of a natural birth.  After 41 weeks and a few days their daughter was born in to her father's hands after a very short three-hour labor in the water.  Bonding and breastfeeding came naturally this time and the experience and emotions were incomparable to the first.  Natural birth and supporting women to make informed choices quickly became a passion of Rachaela's.  She certified to teach Bradley Method® classes only a few months after birthing her daughter, Olive, and started teaching classes in November 2008.

Rachaela has continuously been teaching Bradley Method® classes since certification.  Rachaela has fore-fronted many movements in her hometown, including a natural parenting support group and forming a non-profit organization that supports women and families to make gentle and informed choices during pregnancy, birth, and parenting.  In June of 2011, after a 38-hour-long labor, she welcomed her third child, Finch:  another happy, healthy natural birth.  Rachaela and her family are now  beginning a new journey as a recent move has brought them to the city where Rachaela and Chris were married, where they conceived two children, and where they've always had their heart:  New Orleans.