Best Knoxville OBs

[MLane]

Hi!!

I need your help! Which hospital in Knoxville is best to deliver and which OB's were you happy with?  I have done prenatal care at a birth center in the area but have to change because of an insurance issue.  Who can I trust if I want a natural birth in Knoxville?

Thanks!!

[hapersmion]

I haven't had a baby in a hospital, so I can't tell you for sure, but I can say that none of the OBs in the Knoxville area are natural enough to allow even a trial of labor with a breech baby.  :P   Personally, I'd pay out-of-pocket for a homebirth, or at the very least stick with the Lisa Ross Center (if that's the birth center you were going to).   But if that's not possible, you might look into Dr. Brabson at St. Mary's.  He's the doctor I was referred to from Lisa Ross for an ECV with my first pregnancy.  He still wouldn't do breech birth for insurance reasons, but there's at least a chance that he'd be more friendly to natural birth.   I've had friends who've tried to have natural births at UT and Parkwest, and neither one got the birth they wanted because of the way the doctors and hospital were - also at UT, a neighbor of mine had breastfeeding disrupted, permanently, for her preemie twins because the nurses wouldn't stop giving bottles of formula right before she tried to nurse them.  From the sound of another friend's birth, Fort Sanders is no good either, though she wasn't particularly trying for a natural birth.  The baby wasn't even in the room when I went to visit her, and they put in an internal monitor during her labor without her even knowing that they would have to break her water to do it. 

I know that's not first-hand, but since you didn't have any replies yet I figured I'd give you what I had.  Good luck!

[Lauren82]

I'm so sorry you have to switch from the birth center. :(

Dr. Brabson is the OB affiliated with the birth center. I'm really surprised that the midwives didn't suggest him as I heard that he tends to be much more natural minded. As far as what *hospital* is best, I have been told there are all about the same. I think it's the OB that matters the most. I will say that I live really close to Parkwest and had to visit the L & D floor for a test and it certainly looked nice. But as we all know, looks can be deceiving.

If for some reason you can't get in with Dr. Brabson, I do know there are several wonderful doulas here in Knoxville and that might be helpful for a hospital birth. PM me if you need any suggestions! That goes for any Knoxville lurkers.

[Lauren82]

Oh! I forgot to mention, would your insurance cover the midwives delivering you at St Mary's/Mercy? They can do that too ya know. You don't have to deliver at the birth center. Insurance drives me crazy. Mine wont cover a home birth. :(

[wyovol]

I delivered my son at Ft. Sanders and my daughter at Parkwest. Ft. Sanders wasn't horrible, but I had an epidural and didn't really challenge anything.  I was much happier with Parkwest and I did get the birth I wanted there.  But I also walked in the door complete and ready to push so there wasn't much time for them to push anything on me.    the doctor didn't even make it in time for the birth so a nurse and surgical tech caught her. 

I used the doctors at Contemporary Women's Health for that pregnancy.  They were a little ultrasound happy (they wanted to do an additional ultrasound late in the 3rd trimester to "check" baby's weight and position) but they were perfectly content to not do cervical checks, let me go to 42 weeks without talking induction, and supportive of my plans for natural birth.  The doctor I used, Dr. Yang, has 4 kids and had a natural birth with the last one so that she could know what it was like in order to understand her patients better.  Overall I had a good experience with them.

But, I am using the birth center for this pregnancy.  I didn't want to take the chance of fighting the hospital in case this labor is different.  And DH isn't on board with a home birth (at this point anyway).

If you want to stay with the birth center (and it is Lisa Ross), definitely see if your insurance will cover St. Mary's for the delivery.  I've heard good things about that hospital and I've had a couple of friends who have delivered there with the midwives and have had good births.

[creillysheehan]

Hi there,

I birthed both my babies at St Mary's /Mercy with Kathleen Edmunds.  Both were interesting labors/births, both natural.  Dr Edmunds never pushed anything on me throughout prenatal care or during labor--because both baby & mama were doing fine in labor, she just gave her suggestions and we took what we wanted.  She is happy to do whatever sort of labor you want except water birth, and told me that part of her training was with midwives.  We did Bradley method and had a doula and have very wonderful memories of our children's births.  I was also really happy with most of the nurses at St Mary's and we were impressed with our stay there, especially with our first, which was a very long labor.  Another thing I liked about Dr Edmunds was that she was quite certain that she herself would attend the births--she partners with other female OBs as backups if she's going out of town or something, but when you are in labor, SHE is your doctor, not whoever is on call.  I also really appreciated her calm attitude and sense of humor.  I'm really happy that I had both my babies with her before we moved away from TN!

She's in a one-woman practice with her office in the Professional Building adjacent to St Mary's off Broadway and Woodland.

Good luck!

[MLane]

I'm just seeing all these replies but I figured I would update incase anyone else searches OB's in Knoxville and needs some help!  I ended up having my son early, actually 1/25 the day I got my first reply to this thread (that I'm just now seeing) LOL!  I went to St. Mary's and had Dr. Brabson.  I really do LOVE him.  I had a natural birth even though my son was early.  Dr. Brabson delivered my baby the DAY HE MET ME!  He was fitting me in that afternoon but my water broke at 3am the day before and he let me come into his office that day around 10am to meet me and check me.  I was only 1 cm and was sent over to L&D.  He really followed our wishes which included allowing us to turn off my pitocin after laboring for 8 exhausting hours on it with only progressing 1 cm.  He came in and sat at the end of my bed when I was ready to push, he didn't make us use stirrups.  He was fabulous and caring. 

I have less than excellent things to say about the nurse I had during the majority of my labor and really wasn't impressed at all with the LC there.  But overall I'm glad we were w/ Dr. Brabson and I still got the birth I wanted!  Thanks for all your help ladies!!  Sorry I didn't see it until today!  LOL!

[KoalaMommy]

I go to Dr. Brabson too!  He does water births as well, IN THE HOSPITAL!!  And he took me on as a patient at 38 weeks when I fled the practice I was in under pressure to schedule an induction just in case I went past 40 weeks!  He's definitely the guy to see in K-ville

[bamamom]

I guess it's been mentioned that Dr Brabsen isn't backing up the LisaRoss birth center any longer, and the moms who risk out wind up at UT.

They send you to UT OB, where Dr Rodriguez is technically their backup, but his practice covers.   So for natural minded mamas who get sent to UT OB, you really do want to see Dr Shoutko if you can.  He is amazing, and I've now seen and used all of the docs there at least in rotation.  He has 5 kids and could be a midwife if he wanted to.

Also, they partner with a Fam prac doc named Ashley Ylitalo (sp?) who covers for them one weekend a month, and she is the bees knees.  She was awesome.  She doesn't care what you do, really.   And i was pretty sick by the time delivery rolled around. 

the UT staff was fabulous.  I had a lot of fears about hospital birth, but it was fine.

[KoalaMommy]

Dr. Brabson isn't working with Lisa Ross anymore, but he does have 2 nurse midwives seeing patients at St. Mary's that he works with.  I'm guessing the switch had something to do with the change in ownership from Mercy  to Tennova.  So, he doesn't work with Lisa Ross anymore (which is a shame because they are great) but he does still work with midwives, and if you talk to him, the whole reason he came to St. Mary's was because back in the 70's he wanted to be in a natural birth/husband assisted birth environment, so he's just practicing what he always believed in.

ETA: he also has breastfeeding "advertisements" up in his office and I never once was given a formula gift there, which is really cool.  And the hospital didn't give me formula gifts either, though they did give me some breastfeeding support stuff (I mean real support stuff, free gifts from Medela!).