Your Support Team

Kaleigh is who I think of when someone wants the same person with them through labor and then again at home afterward. She has been doing this in Chicago for about seven years, and she is as useful in the newborn weeks as she is in the delivery room: feeding and lactation support, sleep, meals, and all the practical things nobody warns you about. She looks after the whole family, partners very much included.

Sam has been in this work since she was seventeen, she is a registered nurse, and she has built one of the steadiest doula teams in the city. What I love about an agency her size is the matching: whether you are planning a VBAC or a cesarean, expecting twins, bringing home a preemie, or simply desperate for sleep, there is someone on her roster who has done exactly that before. They cover birth, postpartum, overnight care, classes, and sleep training. A client of mine worked with Sam and could not say enough good things.

This is the prenatal class I point people to when they want more than a hospital slideshow. It runs five weeks in a small group of local couples all due around the same time, and it covers the real stuff: birth planning, pain relief options, navigating the hospital, talking to your partner, postpartum recovery, feeding, sleep. The part I like best is what happens after. The group keeps talking, and they meet up again a few months in, once everyone has a baby.

Abigail has a perinatal mental health certification, which matters more than people realize. It means she is not learning about birth trauma from you. She works with anxiety, mood, OCD, and the whole identity shift of becoming a parent, and she sees people both in Lakeview and virtually. She offers a free consult first, so you can find out if she is the right fit before you commit to anything.

Emily sits with the hardest parts of this: fertility treatment, surrogacy and adoption, pregnancies that get complicated, births that did not go the way you planned, and loss. She also works with mood, anxiety, and eating concerns. Her practice is body-positive and queer-affirming, and she takes insurance, which is not a given in perinatal mental health.

A whole practice built around reproductive mental health, which means you are not explaining the basics to anyone. They work with fertility struggles, miscarriage and loss, perinatal anxiety and depression, birth trauma, bonding, and the general adjustment to parenthood. They support partners too. Most of their work is telehealth, so this is a good option if getting to an office is the thing standing in your way.

Meg works with individuals and with couples, and she is trained in EMDR, IFS, and Gottman. She goes after trauma, anxiety, people-pleasing, and boundaries, and she also works with pregnancy and postpartum. I would send you to her if what is coming apart is not just inside you but between you and someone else. She does a free intro call before you book.

Morgan works only with women through pregnancy and after birth, which is exactly what you want in a dietitian right now. She helps with the unglamorous pregnancy realities like nausea and bone-deep fatigue, then shifts to rebuilding your energy postpartum and supporting your supply if you are feeding. Everything is virtual, and she does a free intro call so you can feel her out first.

Eliza is weight-neutral and works from intuitive eating, so she is a safe place to land if you are tired of being handed a number to hit. She covers prenatal and postpartum nutrition, gestational diabetes, and PCOS, and she also works with disordered eating and chronic dieting. Your first consultation with her is free.

Morgan is who I think of for gut issues that nobody has managed to sort out. IBS, SIBO, bloating, reflux, constipation, food sensitivities, plus thyroid, PCOS, and coming off birth control. She works in phases over several months, starting with real testing rather than guessing. She lived through her own long stretch of gut problems, and you can feel that in how she works.

Roohi is double board-certified in reproductive endocrinology and OBGYN, and she has been a fertility patient herself, which changes how she talks to people. Her team handles the whole range: testing, IUI, IVF, egg and embryo freezing, male factor, LGBTQ+ family building, and donor arrangements. What stood out to me is that she treats fertility as a window into your overall health rather than an isolated problem, which is exactly how I think about pelvic health.

Julia keeps her patient panel small on purpose, and it shows: longer appointments, easier scheduling, and the ability to just text her. She sees adults and kids, and she leans into prevention and women's health. If you have ever left a seven-minute appointment feeling unheard, this is the opposite of that.

A concierge practice downtown on Michigan Avenue, with unhurried appointments, same or next-day scheduling, and 24/7 access to your own physician. Their Chicago physicians include Dr. Migdalia Merida, Dr. Shilpa Joglekar, and Dr. Michelle Seo. Worth considering if your calendar is the reason you keep putting off primary care.

Jessica is board-certified in both family medicine and obesity medicine, and her practice is built on the relationship rather than the visit count. She works in preventive care, metabolic and hormonal health, weight management, and women's health. She is out in Arlington Heights, so this one is for you if you are north or northwest.

This is my practical answer for the days when something needs attention now. Rahul is an emergency medicine physician who built a group with urgent care, primary care, therapy, and wellness clinics across the North Side, including Lincoln Park. They take most major insurance, and their urgent care bills as primary care, which keeps your copay down.

Renata is certified in menopause care through The Menopause Society, and she is board-certified in family medicine and obesity medicine. She leads a practice focused on longevity, prevention, hormone balance, and weight management. If you are in perimenopause and have been told your labs are fine while you feel anything but, she is the person who will actually dig in.

Ann is a naturopathic doctor whose work I have followed for a while, and she thinks about the body the way I do: as one system, not a list of separate complaints. She works with women on hormones, periods, fertility prep, pregnancy and postpartum, plus thyroid, gut, energy, and mood. Her first visits are long and come with real bloodwork and functional labs, and then she stays with you through follow-ups instead of sending you off with a plan and good luck. One thing to know going in: her practice is openly faith-based and she offers to pray with patients.

Huddle is built for the newborn stretch, when the questions do not politely wait for business hours. They do pediatric telehealth with unlimited visits and text support, in-home night nursing, lactation counseling, and postpartum mental health counseling. If what you need is someone coming to your house rather than you packing a newborn into a car seat, start here.

Roots is right up Lincoln Ave and they see pregnant patients, babies, kids, and adults. They are Webster-certified, so pelvic and sacral alignment during pregnancy is genuinely their focus rather than an afterthought, and they keep working with you and your baby after birth. Easy to get to if you are already coming to see me.

Kimbra runs the kind of practice I wish more people knew existed: one on one, long visits, and a real plan rather than a quick crack and out the door. She combines adjustments with acupuncture, cupping, soft tissue work, and exercises to do at home. She is out in St. Charles, so this is for you if you are west or willing to make the drive.

Jess is my person for anything above or below what I treat. She is fellowship-trained, about ten years in, and her practice is built for people who lift, run, cycle, and train. Sessions are one on one, and you get an actual movement assessment and a progression, not a photocopied sheet of exercises. She speaks the same language I do about building capacity.

Jimmy trains people and he is also a physical therapist, which is a rarer combination than it should be. He works with athletes and active adults who want out of pain and back to training, and he cares about long-term strength rather than a quick fix. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and teaches group fitness, so he will not tell you to just stop lifting.

If you are swollen, puffy, and holding fluid, this is where I would send you. They specialize in Brazilian-style lymphatic drainage, including a dedicated post-surgery session, and they do prenatal massage as well. Especially worth knowing about if you are recovering from a cesarean.

A River North studio with most of the recovery tools in one place. The pieces I would actually use: prenatal massage, lymphatic drainage, deep tissue and hot stone, infrared sauna, cold plunge, and float therapy. Nice option for a reset day when your body is asking for something restorative rather than another workout.

An eight-week in-person series for moms whose babies are still very new, with a different topic each week: recovery, feeding, sleep, development. The curriculum is good, but the real value is being in a room every week with other women whose babies are exactly the same age as yours. Their classes are right here in Lincoln Park, and they offer scholarships.

Linda Szmulewitz has been running these groups for years, and they are professionally facilitated, which makes a real difference. The first-time-mom group runs six weeks and gets into feeding, sleep, body image, identity, what happens to your relationship, and going back to work. There is a shorter group for second-time moms, and one for new dads too.

Erin and Lucie built this so moms could actually meet each other in real life. Monthly dinners, casual meetups, and events around the city, plus guides to family-friendly places and mom-owned businesses. This one is not a class or a clinical service. It is friendship, which is often the thing that has gone missing.