Happy New Year from DAL!

January 10, 2025 | Uncategorized

January 2025 Newsletter

Community,

2024 was a big year for Dar a Luz!

We welcomed 120 babies, cared for 744 clients, had 6002 clinical visits (an average of 24 a day!), and welcomed 4 new team members. As of 12/31, a total of 1635 babies have been born at DAL since our inception in 2013.

We are so grateful to each and everyone one of you that have trusted us with your care, this year and every year. This is our heart’s work, and we can’t wait to continue providing our exceptional care to more New Mexican families.

We’re ready to make 2025 an even bigger year for DAL.

We’ll be celebrating our 14th anniversary, hosting fun new classes and events, and launching major projects that we can’t wait to tell you about!

Your support is what helps us meet these milestones every year. It is a testimony to the power of the DAL community. We are honored by your generosity and kindness.

Thank you so much,

The Dar a Luz Team

DAL Updates

A Message from Laura

Change is one of our only constants. The time has come for me to leave Dar a Luz as an employee, both to focus on my therapy practice and to focus on Blissborn more properly at an international level. I go with a trembling heart, because this place and its mission are embedded deeply within the storyline of my life. For more than 12 years, I’ve had the privilege and honor to work with many of our beautiful families, witnessing laughter and tears, intense moments of beauty and peace, struggles and triumphs. The beginning of a life is one of the most amazing experiences we humans have available to us, and it takes many forms. I am so very grateful to have shared some of the powerful moments from these experiences with our wise and brave Dar a Luz community.

From celebrating the spark of an idea early on to seeing it become real, and then change the story for thousands of families, I’ve watched this place and its people rise up and thrive; seen it struggle and stumble and stand, and stand taller still. The community supports this growth. With your belief and care, DAL has continued to change in wonderful ways. Yet I’ve seen it always, with careful wisdom, turn toward people and love them through their own transformations. This love has an immeasurable impact. And these are our heroes. I know you all feel the same reverence for our treasured guides and their caring hands. I am more honored than I can adequately express, and quite proud, to have loved our birth center and its people for a good long time.

For our lovely clients, and our Dar a Luz community — I’ve witnessed beautiful moments of connection, and friendships that blossom, and relationships that grow. I’ve seen learning and transformation, and the conquering of fears, and the coming together in rituals of celebration. There have been gifts. There has been loss, of loved ones big and small. There has been great love and respect, and a belief and hope for the care you know you deserve, from a system that is not built to provide it. And those dreams have found a home here. These powerfully transformative moments have been some of the most meaningful of my life.

I thank you all deeply for the powerful memories and lessons I take with me. I take none of it for granted. I love it all more now than I did all those years ago. I have a special place in my heart for Dar a Luz. I will continue supporting the amazing work that we all still have to do, and I hope all of you will too. Our beautiful home state has so many things to be proud of, but our special way of supporting childbirth is one of our very best. A space like this is rare. It’s also fragile. It is to be treasured and tended to. Each of us has a part to play in this beautiful, ongoing story. As I move to stand in the audience now, I bow to all of you beautiful people, and I thank you all, deeply, for allowing me to learn so much from you.

With all the love in my heart,

Laura

Welcome to Jaelan Mincey, CD(DONA):
Your Birth Illuminated Class Instructor

My journey into birth work began on my family’s goat farm, where I developed a fascination with the birth process. This early interest led me to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science, followed by a career teaching technical skills to veterinary students at Texas A&M. After moving to Albuquerque in 2016, I felt called to switch lanes and support families through birth. In 2017, I completed my DONA International doula training and began working with New Life Birth Services. The following year, I became a certified childbirth educator.

I created Your Birth Illuminated to help families empower themselves with evidence-based information so that they feel confident making informed choices. I believe childbirth education is a fundamental principle of informed consent and has the power to transform births for families. I am honored to be part of the Dar a Luz education team.

I’m also a parent to two children, each with a unique birth story—a hospital transfer with an epidural for my son, and an unmedicated birth center delivery for my daughter. These experiences have deepened my passion for supporting families in their birthing journeys and I look forward to teaching childbirth education with empathy and enthusiasm!

Jaelan

Sign up for Your Birth Illuminated Classes HERE!

Save the Date!

Bring the whole family to celebrate Abigail’s retirement from clinical midwifery with the DAL community on Saturday, February 8th from 4-7 pm!

RSVP HERE!

Carseat Recall

Nuna Baby Essentials has recalled more than 600,000 of its RAVA car seats because debris may prevent the harness from staying snug.

The recall affects RAVA models made from July 16, 2016, to Oct. 25, 2023, the company said. In those car seats, debris may get stuck where the front harness adjuster button is, impeding the mechanism from properly clamping on the strap.

Click HERE for more information!

Call for Editors!

Our incredible staff has been hard at work updating our infamous Baby Book and now we need YOUR help!

We are currently searching for an editor to help format this new iteration so that we can get it printed in the new year.

If you or anyone you know are interested in helping us with this process, please reach out by responding to this email and we’ll be in touch soon!

Donate to DAL this New Year!

Please consider donating to Dar a Luz to help us kick off the new year! Every donation has a profound impact on staff and clients alike and allows us to continue offering our exceptional care to New Mexican families.

We thank you for your support!

DONATE HERE!

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