Founder’s Holiday Letter: A Season of Gratitude and What’s Ahead
A Season of Reflection and Intentional Growth for Our Community
As the year draws to a close, I want to pause for a moment—not to look backward, but to thank you and to share what you can expect from us as we move through the holidays and into the new year.
This has been a season of extraordinary growth for Diosa Ara and the Labora Collective. We have been building, testing, learning, and listening, often all at once. Now, as many of us step into a slower rhythm for the holidays, we’re choosing to do the same—intentionally and with care.
A Gentler Publishing Pace
Over the Christmas season and through January, you’ll notice a gentler publishing pace across our platforms. We will continue to share work on each channel, but with more space to breathe. This is a time for reflection, clarity, and alignment, both for our team and for our community.
You’ll continue to hear from us, just not at a volume that competes with rest, family, or restoration.
A Holiday Gift: Free Access & Luminary Upgrades
As a holiday gift to our entire community, we’re making a meaningful shift during this period. All of our journals will be fully free for the next one to two months. Everything currently published will be open and accessible, so that anyone who arrives here—whether for the first time or as a longtime reader—can explore the ecosystem without barriers.
At the same time, every paid subscriber will be upgraded to Luminary status. This is our way of saying thank you for believing in this work early and helping make it possible.
Restructuring Our Private & Public Channels
During this transition, all premium and paid content will move into a private space. The public-facing journals will remain welcoming, generous, and substantive, while the private channel will house deeper dives, early pilots, and more intensive offerings for those who want to engage at that level. Our goal is simple: to make the free experience genuinely valuable and the paid experience clearly distinct, intentional, and worth opting into.
A More Thoughtful Publishing Rhythm
You’ll also start to see a more thoughtful publishing rhythm designed to respect your time and your inbox. Going forward, if you’re subscribed to a specific channel, you’ll receive one update from that channel each week. In addition, twice a week, we’ll send Labora Collective–wide digests that bring together links and highlights from across the ecosystem. This allows you to stay connected to the breadth of our work without feeling overwhelmed by constant notifications.
Starting this Friday, and continuing weekly, I’ll also be sharing founder updates directly with you. These will be candid, grounding check-ins—celebrating wins, naming progress, and keeping you close to the thinking and momentum behind the scenes. Think of them as a standing Friday conversation between us.
What to Expect in February & Beyond
When we return in fuller stride in February, you can expect a more unified, coherent publication experience. We’re integrating our substacks into a tighter editorial ecosystem so that the throughline of our work—medicine, justice, lived experience, and systems thinking—is easier to follow and more powerful in practice.
You’ll see more guest writers, including physicians, midwives, doulas, and other birth workers, alongside collaborators from aligned organizations who are building in this space with integrity and urgency.
Piloting Our Clinical Care Model
We’re also entering an exciting phase of experimentation. In the coming months, we’ll begin piloting elements of our clinical care model within the collective, offering members the first opportunity to participate. Some of these early pilots, including potential e-consults, will be offered at very low cost or even free, because feedback and learning matter more to us at this stage than scale. This community will help shape what comes next.
Growing Our Team & Building Partnerships
Behind the scenes, our team is growing. We’re actively recruiting an editor to champion the work and strengthen our editorial rigor, and I’m expanding our executive leadership to support the scale and seriousness of what we’re building. We’re also developing collaborations with partner organizations that we’re genuinely excited to share more about in the new year.
With Gratitude
Most of all, I want to wish you a peaceful, grounding holiday season. Thank you for being here—for reading, for engaging, for trusting us as we build something different and necessary. We’re looking forward to stepping into the new year with clarity, generosity, and renewed momentum, and I’m grateful to be doing that alongside you.
With warmth and appreciation,
Yamicia.