SANTA CRUZ — More than 800 babies are born at Watsonville Community Hospital every year with some waiting until just after the stroke of midnight to join the New Year’s celebration.
Ailany Galilea, born 6 pounds, 14 ounces, came into the world at 12:44 a.m. Wednesday and was welcomed by loving parents Magali Elias and Josué Galilea. The first baby born in 2025 at the now publicly-owned South County hospital, Ailany arrived at 21 inches tall and with a full head of jet-black hair tucked beneath a pink beanie she wore while cradled comfortably in her mother’s arms.
“I was expecting hair from her, but not a lot,” said Elias, beaming with pride and excitement. “This is a good moment for me.”
Elias said that as she and her husband, married in October, began brainstorming names for their newborn, she wanted something that began with the last three letters of her own name, representing a continuation of the family lineage and the unbreakable linkage between mother and daughter.
“I wanted to have a little bit of something into her name of mine,” said Elias.
With a labor that began early Tuesday and lasted about 17 hours, Elias said contractions felt manageable at first but as the process continued throughout the night, she was surprised by the intensity of the pain.
“You come here expecting a different type of pain,” she said. “But you don’t expect the pain that you get.”
After one final push, Elias said her daughter emerged and let out a brief wail before the nurse placed the newborn on her chest.
“Once she felt me, she just fell asleep,” added Elias.
Baby Ailany and Elias are also fortunate to share much more than the letters in their names. Elias was born in the very same hospital as her daughter 19 years prior — an experience that, just a few years ago, many feared would soon be an impossibility. The hospital’s private ownership group declared bankruptcy in 2021 and the 126-year-old health care institution faced the very real threat of permanent closure.
But the shocking news sparked what officials called “the largest community fundraising campaign in the history of Santa Cruz County,” while lawmakers expedited a process that resulted in creation of the Pajaro Valley Health Care District. In less than six months, the fundraising effort brought in about $65.5 million that was enough for the district to purchase the hospital and bring it back into public ownership for the first time in decades.
But the birthing center in Watsonville wasn’t the only one celebrating the arrival of new life in the new year. Dignity Health Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz announced that baby girl Elliana Mae Azmy was born at 3:01 a.m. Wednesday to mother Lily Adelia Kornher and father Elijah Azmy of Boulder Creek. The little bundle of joy arrived weighing 6 pounds, 21 inches long, and both she and her mother are healthy and doing well.
Sutter Health declined to share any newborn information.
Meanwhile in Watsonville, Josué stood calmly beside his wife as she retold the birthing story and quietly observed his daughter’s movements — a scrunching of the forehead, an infectious smile, a settled serenity.
Asked by the Sentinel how it feels to be a father, Josué replied with translation from Spanish provided by his wife, “I’m proud of meeting my princess, Ailany.”