‘Paralyzed Bride’ Welcomes a Baby

Rachelle Friedman Chapman tells Yahoo Parenting how “amazing” it has been to welcome her daughter via surrogate four years after she was paralyzed. (Photo: Helen Joy Photography)

Rachelle Friedman Chapman prides herself on being tough. Dubbed the “Paralyzed bride” — after a friend’s playful push into a pool at her own bachelorette party broke her neck and rendered her immobile below the chest in 2010 — the 28-year-old tells Yahoo Parenting, “Maybe just a handful of people have seen me cry as an adult. I’m not an emotional person at all.”

But the first sight of her newborn daughter Kaylee Rae — born to her and husband Chris Chapman, 31, Sunday via surrogate — was enough to make the fighter break down, she admits. “That got me.” When a nurse handed her Kaylee “it was amazing,” says Chapman. “I was very emotional.”