The first baby of 2025 born at Bartlett Regional Hospital is Enrique Bravo, delivered at 8:10 p.m. New Year’s Day to parents Koko Urata and Enrique Bravo of Juneau, the hospital announced in a press release Friday.
The newborn Enrique was 19.75 inches and weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces.
“The staff has just been outstanding,” Urata said in the release. “It was a journey for us as first-time parents, and the team has just been absolutely amazing supporting us and making us feel heard and safe.”
Urata’s father, Bob, is a recently retired doctor who practiced in Juneau for decades and played a key role in luring to Bartlett a doctor who played a key role in the hospital’s first birth this year. Lindy Jones, an emergency department physician, and his wife, Colleen Jones, crafted a wooden rocking boat that was filled with newborn items and given to Bravo’s family by Bartlett Beginnings Birth Center, an annual first-birth tradition that started eight years ago.
Koko Urata and Enrique Bravo with their baby, Enrique, the first born at Bartlett Regional Hospital in 2025, and Lindy Jones, a doctor at the hospital, seen with the wooden rocker filled with items presented as a gift to the new family. (Bartlett Regional Hospital photo)
“Koko’s father, Dr. Bob Urata, recruited me 33 years ago to come up here and work here,” Jones said. “And now, full circle, we have Dr. Koko Urata who’s come to our community to serve in one of the areas of medicine with the biggest need. We’re so lucky to have her in our community.”
The new mother, referring to Jones, said “I spent a lot of time with him during my childhood, he and his wife would often babysit, and I have a lot of fond memories with him and so this is just really meaningful that we’ve received this boat made by him and his wife.”
“I watched him make boats in his garage when I was growing up and he also made wooden benches and an arbor for our wedding when Enrique and I got married,” she added. “It all feels full circle.”
This year’s boat is made from Yellow Cedar and Hemlock donated by Icy Straits Lumber in Hoonah, according to the hospital’s press release.
Nearly 300 babies are born annually at Bartlett, according to the hospital.
