Julia Mannes Doula Services

My wife and I highly recommend Julia. Beginning with our initial meeting where she listened to our questions, engaged our doubts and reassured us that we could have the birth experience we wanted. Julia was open, honest and professional, answering our questions, no matter how simple or complex. After we decided to work with Julia, she was always available if we had a question about the pregnancy. She called in the days leading up to the birth to check in on us.
Our son’s birth was a long journey (97 hours!) that finished with the amazing start of a
new life. Julia was with us almost the entire time!
First, we are so grateful for Julia’s encouragement to explore
the home birthing option, which led to three of the most intimate,
exhausting, and self-​discovering days of our lives. During the hours
upon hours of surges, Julia helped my wife and I maintain and regain our
focus, motivation, rest, and comfort. With her ability to soothe and
guide my wife, I was able to maintain my physical and mental energy. I
also learned from her positive messaging and her ability to re-​frame
difficult experiences in helpful ways. Also, she was a
tremendous advocate when we ended up transferring to the hospital. There were so
many elements to her role, it’s difficult to recount them all. We weren’t totally
clear what we needed a doula for before the birth, but afterward we
can’t imagine not having had one. We are so glad that Julia was ours.

Julia is exttremely dedicated to her work. We had an initial meeting by Skype and agreed to work with her right away. Her energy was great and her expertise was exactly what we needed. My wife’s labor ended up lasting 4 days and Julia was with us for two of them, staying up at night and helping ease the discomfort of her contractions in a variety of ways. I believe we could not have lasted as long without her.
Once we made it to the hospital, she tirelessly advocated for us and as a result we felt supported throughout. She also has a lot of resources at her disposal and will recommend other services as needed. She has since been in touch and again, helped us with many local resources for new parents.

Julia was my amazing pre and post-​natal yoga teacher. I first found
her class at 28 weeks gestation. I loved her classes from the start.
Leaving these classes I felt better prepared for my day, my labor and
being …a mom. Her parent/​baby classes after the birth of my son were
the highlights of our weeks through the long winter. I can’t imagine
being a new mom without the support and community of Julia’s classes.
Most importantly Julia has a kind and loving spirit. She somehow knew
exactly how to guide me to places I didn’t know I could go. She helped
me to find my own inner strength and led me toward a stronger
and more thoughtful yoga practice. Her teaching was so inspiring that
a year and a half later I completed a 200 hour yoga teacher training.
Through the ups and downs of the intense teacher training Julia made
time to speak with me and encouraged me again find my own inner
strength to get past some difficult hurdles.
In my second pregnancy Julia has helped me to make many decisions
about my birth. She is very informed on home birthing as well as
hospital birthing. In our talks there was never any judgement about
what she thought I should choose. She simply talked about the birthing
process, recommended books and articles to read and again, helped to
empower me to make the best choices for me and my family. Just two
weeks ago I called Julia for guidance. I was very unhappy with my
provider and felt strongly that I wanted to switch, at 30 weeks!
Again, her counsel and information was very important to my decision
making process. I am so happy to say that I am now at a wonderful
birthing center (with amazing midwives) getting the exact care I want
and I am so excited about this birth. As I am not in the NYC area
Julia has recommended a doula in my area and she is fantastic! I
really have to give credit Julia for giving me informed, professional
guidance in my quest for the right birth for me.

Julia is an amazing doula and person. She made such a difference in our birth experience and provided the extra strength needed for first time parents to be. Julia’s support gave us the confidence to approach our daughter’s birth not with anxiety but with joy and excitement. We had so many questions initially and during the process which she always answered quickly and confidently. Her warm, caring nature always kept us at ease and truly allowed us to enjoy our daughter’s birth.