Rachel Rainbolt, M.A.
Certified Educator of Infant Massage (CEIM)
Independent Certified Instructor of Baby Signs (ICI)
Freelance Published Author
KUSI's Parenting Expert
Rachel Rainbolt, a mother of two with eleven years of experience working with young children and parents has a Master's Degree in Family Therapy, is featured as a Parenting Expert on KUSI's "Inside San Diego," is a Freelance Published Author and Parent Educator of classes in Infant Massage, Baby Sign Language, and Babywearing. She works passionately to nurture the loving bond between parent and baby to foster happy, healthy families through her business, Ohana Wellness.
"My life as a mom, my professional experience working with young children, my education, and the philosophies and techniques of attachment parenting and narrative therapy all inform my work as a parenting expert."
Rachel is a Certified Educator of Infant Massage (CEIM). She was trained and is certified by Infant Massage USA, the US affiliate of the International Association of Infant Massage, headquartered in Sweden (IAIM-Sweden). Rachel is also a Baby Signs® Independent Certified Instructor (ICI).
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Interview with The Natural Birth Project:
We caught up with Rachel Rainbolt, a local San Diego practitioner, who shared her compelling wisdom about parenting. We are grateful to have this wise woman as a resource in our community.
Natural Birth Project: What is your relationship to birth?
Rachel: As a mother, I have an intimate and respectful relationship to birth. I have a reverence for a woman’s birthing body that parallels only a mother’s capacity to love her baby. When I labored and birthed my two babies, I had a trust in my body that was my salvation from the pain and work of labor. To completely surrender to your body is the most amazing experience life has to offer. My consciousness and soul went to a place of calmness where I tapped into the strength of the millions of women that came before me. The experience of birth can create the foundation of trust in your internal wisdom as a mother that is the basis for a positive mothering experience.
NBP: Tell us about your training and experience. And what inspired you to do the work you do?
Rachel: I have always known my calling is to help young children and parents. After working for several years in the field of early childhood education, I found myself pulled toward a career that had a more reaching impact on families. After graduating from college with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Child and Family Studies, I went on to graduate school and earned a M.A. in Family Therapy, where I specialized in parenting, early childhood, and attachment.
After giving birth to my second child I decided to take some maternity leave. Four months into my leave I found myself in an infant massage educator training, with baby-in-sling. I am driven and guided by my passion for working with new families. What inspires me to do the work I do? The potential of every new parent. The potential of every new parent to listen to their innate wisdom, to love their baby, to find a path that creates harmony in their lives and souls. The potential every new parent has to meet the needs of their baby and to form a bond that will last a lifetime.
NBP: How does your work relate to conception, pregnancy and birth?
Rachel: The transition into parenthood is possibly the most significant experience life has to offer. My work is to assist parents and babies in this transition.
NBP: What is the most important thing a pregnant woman or new mother should know about her body and giving birth and becoming a mother based on your personal and professional experience?
Rachel: Listen to your innate wisdom as a mother. This means to trust in your body, empower your inner voice, and be guided by your feelings of attachment.
NBP: What is your biggest obstacle in supporting women who are trying to conceive or already pregnant?
Rachel: Every new parent comes to the table with a whole suitcase full of other peoples’ truths. Loving family members, close friends, and well-meaning strangers all fill your suitcase full of what they think you should and should not do. Unpack them and lay them all out on the table. Pick each one up, look at it, talk about it, try it on. Does it feel like a good fit for you? If not, toss it. If so, integrate it. If you don’t shine a light on these other voices within they will whisper in your ear in your most vulnerable moments and undermine your wisdom. You are the world’s foremost expert on your baby. Think of the advice and expectations of those around you in your circle of support, including experts like me, like parenting tools: the more tools you know about, the better. You may not need one tool now, but it may come in handy to pull it out in some situation in the future. You can pick and choose whatever tools work for you for the task at hand. And some tools you know you will never use, discard them or they will only weigh you down. Remember, you can acknowledge that someone’s advice is not right for you while still respecting the person from whom it came.
NBP: Tell me your best success story.
Rachel: To be completely honest, my best success story is one that involved a court-mandated father in one of my parenting classes learning how to love his son. The work I do amazing. I am truly honored and privileged to be in the position I am to help families. What I love so much about what I do is that I see successes every day. Every experience with your baby is an opportunity to deepen your attachment and in learning what I teach I see parents harnessing this potential. Who’s to say one person’s journey or growth is any more significant than another’s? When a new mother harnesses the power of her healing and loving touch and massages out the digestion problems of her newborn, it strengthens her identity as a good mother, her faith in herself and her baby, and deepens that relationship forever.
NBP: Tell us about your services and all you offer.
Rachel: At Ohana Wellness our mission is to enhance the well-being of families, ohanas. We promote health, happiness and growth while fostering attachment between parent and baby. We offer classes in Infant Massage, Baby Sign Language, Babywearing, an informative newsletter, a comprehensive resource list, and a complete line of Baby Signs products. It is our honor to touch your lives, making the transition of birth a harmonious one, easing your job as a parent, and contributing to the formation of a beautiful bond that will last a lifetime.