Juli Billings

Juli gave me back my sanity. I had a pretty traumatic delivery and complications after so my milk took longer to come in. I supplemented for 2 weeks and by the third week I was ready to try to exclusively breastfeed. After two days of trying to exclusively breastfeed I knew that I needed help. My baby was constantly nursing and crying. Neither of us were happy. Luckily Juli was on the referral list from Northwestern hospital. I was able to call and get an appointment with Juli for the next day. I’ve talked with two other lactation consultants, one at the hopsital, and the other via phone, so I thought I knew what Juli was going to say, ex: my baby is not latching, I have to be more patient, etc. However, this was not the case at all. Juli came to my home and we assessed my situation together. She wanted to know what I WANTED from the visit. This was so unusual for me as many lactation consultants hound you and say that a mother must breastfeed their child and there is no other way. Juli gave me options. Juli listened to my concerns and developed a plan of action for me. By the time Juli left my house, I felt a sense of relief and for once since the birth of my child, I felt hope that this breastfeeding thing would get better, and it did. Juli followed up with me multiple times and was a great resource in providing information to my doctor. I highly recommend Juli!

I can’t say enough about Juli. I am familiar with her work as a Bradley teacher, doula, and lactation consultant.
I met Juli as a Bradley partner for my sister-​in-​law, attending her Bradley training sessions, Having completed them with another teacher for my own baby, I can say that, while both teachers were excellent, Juli’s class was made more enjoyable and effective by her highly organized, humorous, and warm delivery (so to speak!). I also appreciated that she had longer sessions so that there could be fewer (if I recall it was something like 9 1.5 hour sessions instead of the standard 12 1-​hour sessions). When I went to the hospital with my SIL, I was such a well prepared coach that the hospital staff thought I was a doula.
Recently, when my own home birth was moved to the hospital because of a baby who didn’t want to stay head-​down, I called Juli to support me as a doula. She proved to be an excellent emotional and logistic support. She knows how to interact with the medical staff so that her presence is not intrusive, yet support the laboring mother in making educated decisions. She is also a wonderful cheerleader, hand-​holder, and solution finder (for example, she found a way to keep make sure the baby’s heartbeat could be picked up by the monitor *while* I was standing so that I didn’t have to be tethered to the bed). Once the baby was out, she was very strong in asserting that the conditions we wanted were respected (placing the baby immediately on mom, letting the cord pulse, etc.). That was great because by then, I couldn’t have told you my birth plan if you gave me a million dollars.
Largely because of Juli’s support, I was able to give birth vaginally and without anesthesia, despite having been induced and experiencing more powerful contractions than would have happened naturally.
After the birth, Juli put on her lactation consultant hat and made sure we were nursing well before she left us to catch up on our rest. She was also available by phone and for a home visit for lactation support and was able to solve a very painful breastfeeding problem for me with some simple troubleshooting. Thank you for everything, Juli!

Juli led the breastfeeding session of our Bradley method class. She was so fantastic that we hired her as a lactation consultant for an in house visit after our baby was born (we would have hired her as a doula too had we not already had one).
Juli is high energy, no-​nonsense and incredibly professional. You hear so much contradictory information presented as fact during pregnancy. Juli cuts through all the bullshit and says, «This, this, and this is nonsense. This, this, and this is how you want to do it.» She’s been doing this for 15 years. She’ll drop knowledge on you and she won’t waste time.
We had a lot of things go wrong in that first week after birth. The thing that went the most right was breastfeeding. We attribute a lot of that to the lessons we learned from Juli. Four of the women from our Bradley method class hired Juli and all have had similarly positive experiences. Of all the professionals we came into contact with throughout our pregnancy and delivery, Juli stands out as one of the best.
(PS — Dads, you’ll like Juli a lot. Higher energy, less nonsense than the other folks you’ve been dealing with. She’s funny too.)

We met Juli through our Bradley Method classes. She came in and did a class on breastfeeding. She had so much valuable information and amazing energy. Her class was much more of a discussion rather than her talking to us, which is so helpful. I would highly recommend her class to any moms, new or experienced. I will definitely be calling her for any additional questions or help once my baby arrives!

Juli is PHENOMENAL! She has an amazing reputation as one of, if not the best doula in Chicago. She was my doula for my first (and so far only) delivery. She supported my husband and I throughout my pregnancy, delivery, and many months postpartum. She is incredibly intuitive and understands her clients and their needs instantly. She can connect with, care for, and support anyone ranging from a mom who wants homebirth to a mom who is a diehard hospital and epidural fan. She never passes judgment on how you choose to have your birth. Rather, she educates and explains and helps to facilitate that most positive birth experience you can have.
Off the bat at our first meeting, I felt confident with her as my doula. She’s intelligent, funny, sharp and witty. She’s incredibly knowledgeable on all things mommy and baby– ranging from prenatal stress, fetal development, delivery, post partum emotions, breastfeeding, baby sleep schedules, and how to deal with bad babysitters (yes, I even called her to complain about my babysitter!)
Nurses are in and out so I feel it’s crucial to have a doula always there to keep you comfortable and staying positive. She thinks of everything from getting us water to covering my IV with a little cloth because I’m afraid of needles and don’t want to see them. From the husband’s perspective, she also helped him immensely. She prepared him, let him know I’m okay and everything that’s happening is normal, and she constantly checked up on him too. A calm and taken care of spouse/​partner is better able to support the woman!
She helped me make crucial decisions in my labor that I believe stopped me from ultimately having a C-​section. I trusted her completely and felt confident in her advice, and I think it gave me an amazing birth experience. I am still nursing my 8 month old a few times a day thanks to Juli. who was a wealth of information in keeping my milk supply, and telling me which medications were compatible with breastfeeding, which many doctors are not well trained in.
I LOVE Juli and I can’t wait for my next pregnancy to see her again! Call any of her references, and I bet every single one of them has the same rave reviews.
On a side note, my family is Jewish orthodox and she was extremely accommodating and sensitive to our particular needs. She really looked into our religion to help us as best as she could, asked questions, and did her research.

She’s amazing. Positive, skilled, talented. Would recommend as a lactation consultant or Doula

As lactation consultants go, Juli is, in my opinion, the BEST IN CHICAGO. She is certainly better than any of LC that visited me in the hospital. But who knows, they might not have as impressive credentials as Juli does.
If you think you might be having trouble breastfeeding, don’t hesitate, call Juli now.
She came to my house and had me fixed up in no time at all. Furthermore, she’s been periodically checking back in on me to see how things are going, which has been extremely helpful. She is the most knowledgeable person I have met about all things baby – perhaps even more so than my doctor. She’s up-​to-​date on things like cosleeping, natural and «traditional» childbirth, etc. Plus, she is really unassuming, funny, supportive, and down-​to-​earth without being too hippy-​dippy granola, which can be a real turn off.
Overall, Juli rocks! If you’re reading this, you probably need to call her now.

What an absolutely pleasant surprise Juli’s childbirth class has been. Encompassing the Bradley Method of childbirth — with tangents into lactation, post-​partum, what to expect week-​to-​week throughout pregnancy and all other topics surrounding birth itself — the class is informative, fun and great preparation for what to expect.
I’m a busy husband who had little enthusiasm for childbirth itself and initially considered busting out my laptop to do work during class. I had been excited for my baby to arrive, of course, but frankly not nearly as much so about the birth itself, which I still view almost wholly from a health lens — I just want whatever does mother and child no harm, and then with the least pain possible. The Bradley Method for natural child birth — emphasizing diet, exercise, nutrition, breathing — strikes my wife and I as common sense standing against a tidal wave of induction, drugs and surgery, all of which, however convenient they can be, are often employed unnecessarily and cause harm. When and how exactly to opt for these things is something to learn, not accept as writ by a medical community with many self-​interests in all three. Hence, Juli’s class.
Juli’s class has got people who share my perspective. It’s also got many who do not. Members are diverse. There are singles, couples, suits, hipsters, hippies, corporate hippies — class members who spend night-​and-​day thinking about pregnancy and others who devote a few hours of week towards preparing for the big moment — people who perhaps have nothing in common but time, information and empathy enough to want to attend in the first place — and, I’m willing to bet, agreement that Juli’s class is a five-​star service.
Juli possesses all the qualities of a great teacher. She’s prepared. Her materials, from checklists to videos, are practical and supplement her teaching but in no way substitute for it. She sticks to her syllabus, makes herself available before and after class, as well as via cell, e-​mail and Web. She encourages and actively develops friendships between class members. She’s a trusted source of counsel because she has a fact-​based approach to making recommendations and is an active listener who respects, encourages and works with diverse approaches — in this case to birthing, whether in choice of hospital, details of birthing plan or pre– or post-​birth plans.
It’s obvious she loves what she does. She has the class participate and bring the material to life themselves, which makes the minutes fly-​by while always remaining totally relevant to the topic of birthing. For example, her role-​playing of nurse /​doctor interactions with patients was humorous, nuanced and incredibly useful — a modelling of different labor scenarios and how to identify them and react, so when labor day comes we can differentiate between attempts at lazy or inept medical interventions and those smart recommendations for when emergency action is, in fact, required.
Such class activities are not only interactive but memorable — perhaps more so than taking notes and memorizing them — though there is ample opportunity for that too. Lectures also come to life, since Juli, as with any great teacher, has performance art. In her case, her imitations rival those of a stand-​up comedian — but, again, are hardly self-​indulgent, tangential or unprofessional; instead they serve to illustrate and hammer home important points. Finally, she is very open about her past, what lessons she has learned as a mother of four and as a teacher /​doula /​lactation consultant. This openness not only provides anecdotal qualifications for the facts behind her content, but also shows a vulnerability that creates a deep trust relationship between her and her class. The quality of the teaching here is commensurate to the best I have had in undergraduate or graduate schools, where many of my tenured professors only brought a fraction of the fact-​base or passion Juli carries into class with her every Thursday evening.
Juli’s class also resembles an academic one in meeting once-​a-​week, for three hours, for nine weeks (childbirth = end-​of-​term final exam). Although Juli made it clear upfront to not feel guilty for showing up late or leaving early, she made it to 9:30 every night — and made every minute worth it — which is another difference between Juli and one of my $ 3000-​per graduate classes I am still paying off. It’ll be hard not just to find a birthing class this good in the city, but any sort of class at this value.
My wife and I were going to take a Bradley method class no matter what — the fact we lucked out and had someone as fantastic as Juli for a teacher is another addition to our list of proofs that we live charmed lives.

My wife and our newborn baby girl had some trouble breastfeeding. Juli came over to our house, on the 4^th of July no less, and by the time she left, our problems were a thing of the past. It was an amazingly helpful session, and we are so thankful to her.
Juli is extremely knowledgeable about current research and thinking on breastfeeding. She is very professional and gets right down to business, but she is also very warm and encouraging toward mother and baby… really a perfect balance. She even spontaneously called to follow up and answered questions for half an hour.
If there is a better lactation consultant in Chicago than Juli, I would be shocked. A+++
Thank you so much Juli. Our little one is now feeding like a champ!