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The first year of a baby’s life can bring joy, questions, stress, and unexpected challenges. Families may need help with healthcare, food, housing, transportation, breastfeeding, mental health, immigration concerns, childcare, benefits, or legal questions.
New Mexico DULCE builds on the nationally recognized DULCE framework to bring coordinated postpartum support to families in New Mexico. Through a clinic- and community-based approach, New Mexico DULCE connects families with trusted support during well-child visits and beyond.
The New Mexico pilot is led through UNM Office for Community Health and partners. Firecrest serves as the local legal partner, providing legal support, education, and referrals to help families address barriers before they become crises.
DULCE stands for Developmental Understanding and Legal Collaboration for Everyone.
Nationally, DULCE is an evidence-based pediatric approach that addresses health-related social needs for families with infants. It was founded by a pediatrician and a lawyer. In New Mexico, the model is being adapted to support families from birth through 12 months through well-child visits, family support, legal collaboration, and community-based peer support.
New Mexico DULCE includes:
New Mexico DULCE helps families connect with resources that support health, stability, and early childhood development.
Families may receive help with:
Many family challenges have a legal dimension. A parent may need help understanding workplace lactation rights, accessing a breast pump, navigating immigration questions, addressing unsafe housing, responding to benefits denials, or finding free or low-cost legal help.
Through New Mexico DULCE, Firecrest provides legal support, issue-spotting, education, and referrals so families can be connected to help earlier. In 2025, legal support included immigration assistance, access to breast pumps, workplace and public breastfeeding rights, tax questions, and family-facing legal resource materials in English and Spanish.
You do not have to figure everything out alone. New Mexico DULCE is designed to support parents during the first year of a baby’s life by connecting families with people who can listen, answer questions, and help find resources.
New Mexico DULCE helps care teams respond to the real-life conditions that affect infant and family health, including social needs, postpartum mental health, legal barriers, and family support.
The program supports screening, navigation, referrals, and interdisciplinary case review so families can receive more coordinated support.
New Mexico DULCE offers legal professionals a meaningful way to support infant and family health through preventive legal partnership.
Legal needs identified through the project include public benefits, housing, utilities, employment, education, immigration, domestic violence, custody/guardianship, debt, disability benefits, and family stability concerns.