Now, as one of four midwives in partnership as Mountain Mamas in Tenby St, she is all smiles.
When the Otago Daily Times visited last week, Mrs Bilous was relaxing in the calm of an empty waiting room - although it's not usually like that.
The room is decorated with children's art and the photographs of dozens of babies she has helped deliver.
It is Mountain Mamas' second premises since June 2004, after intense lobbying by Mrs Bilous encouraged other midwives to join her practice.
It's been an exciting time for Mrs Bilous (38), who four years ago was threatening to resign so she could find some balance in life and secure time for her own two children.
"The first exciting thing is there are so many people having babies.
"We would have delivered 120 babies last year from the practice. When I started in 1998, I think in my first year we did 12," she said.
" . . . The other exciting thing is we have interest from midwives training at the moment who want to come and live here. So it is definitely looking better than it ever has been."
Mountain Mamas has been keeping Pauline Hunter and Justine Quirke - who answered Mrs Bilous' SOS four years ago - in full-time employment.
Recently, Mandy Madin also joined the practice.
A fifth midwife, Margo Townsend, now practices independently in Wanaka.
Mountain Mamas received a further boost last July, when the then Minister of Health, Dunedin North MP Pete Hodgson, made an additional $11.4 million available nationally for primary maternity services, some of which was earmarked for recruitment and retention of lead maternity carers and to address workforce shortages in rural areas.
Mr Hodgson also made $4.7 million available to pilot a programme aimed at supporting graduate midwives in their first year of practice.
Previously, Mrs Bilous had struggled to find locums to support the Wanaka practice.
Now she says she knows of several people with connections to the district who are training to become midwives and want to return.
"The Government can't fix the locum issue itself so the money is used to sort out the problem. For us, it has made a difference, certainly in recruiting people."
Another round of rural midwifery funding is expected at the end of this month, with the money to be allocated to individual midwives according to a formula based on population and isolation factors.
Last year, the amounts ranged nationally between $11,000 and $600, depending on the ranking scale, Mrs Bilous said.
The amounts available this year have not been finalised.
Despite the improved service delivery, the ongoing population drift to the Upper Clutha ensures the Mountain Mamas still have times where they have to manage numbers and refer mothers to midwives in other towns.
But, for the meantime, everything seems to be ticking along nicely.
So - for anyone thinking of moving to Wanaka and starting a family - where are the fertility hotspots?
"We've got it down to certain streets. Ash Ave in Albert Town, the whole of Hawea Flat and Pero St, off Mt Iron Drive."
