The Childbirth Center at Parkwest Medical Center

The Childbirth Center at Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville, TN offers resort-style accommodations.

Unlike traditional delivery rooms, our cozy, private suites allow you to experience labor, delivery, and recovery in the same familiar location.

Each birthing suite is beautifully decorated and furnished to offer optimal comfort, throughout your stay. To preserve the aesthetics of your suite, necessary delivery equipment is carefully concealed.

The spacious suites are designed to accommodate family participation in the birth experience.

Each room has a bassinet so your baby can stay in the room with you, as well as a place for a family member to also sleep overnight.

Our nursery is also available to provide expert care for your newborn as needed.

Suites are designed so that babies can “room in” with mothers, allowing the critical bond to be established early on between mother and baby.

Nursing staff are available to assist parents with caring for their babies in the room, addressing questions to help prepare you to care for your newborn once you return home.

The Childbirth Center’s advanced communication systems and decentralized supply and workstations are designed to position nursing staff in close proximity to mothers so they can respond quickly to your needs.

An entertainment center provides television, cable, and internet access. As an additional amenity, you have access to your very own whirlpool hot tub for relaxing tired muscles and finding a peaceful moment to reflect on this special time.

Because your newborn’s safety is a top priority, the Childbirth Center at Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, is designed as a secured area, with all entries and exits closely monitored.

Video surveillance cameras are located throughout the facility to help security officers track any uncommon activity. We regularly upgrade our equipment to utilize the latest and most effective, yet unobtrusive, security methods.

With the Hugs® infant protection system, each infant wears a tag that is monitored to prevent any infant being removed from the unit without proper authorization. Matching tag bracelets also identify all infants and their parents following delivery.

Parkwest’s Safety Management Team takes extra precautions, through a formalized Infant Security Policy detailing appropriate action for key individuals who would need to respond if there was an attempt to remove an infant from the Childbirth Center.

The policy includes education, training, and drills to heighten awareness of staff roles and responsibilities related to infant security. This provides parents with the extra assurance of maximum protection for their infants.

In addition to our facility-wide safety initiatives, The Childbirth Center at Parkwest Medical is recognized as a gold certified national safe sleep champion facility. This is the highest certification level available in infant safe sleep practices.

Educational Resources for Families

To help you learn as much as possible about childbirth and how to care for your newborn and yourself once you return home, we offer special educational courses. We cover nearly every aspect of pregnancy and labor through our Teddy Bear University.

Our childbirth education courses include education on breathing techniques, breastfeeding, sibling classes, newborn care, labor and delivery, among others.

We also offer a free online Prenatal and Newborn Education course for expectant families.

For class schedules, call 865-374-PARK, or visit the Teddy Bear University page.

In addition to these helpful resources for families, we also offer mothers the following support and resources for breastfeeding:

• Parkwest’s Breastfeeding Guide
• Lactation Support Group Flier (PDF)
• www.breastfeeding.com
• www.LLLI.org
• www.ILCA.org

Net Nursery

To view a baby in the Net Nursery made available by Bella Baby. To contact Bella Baby call 1-888-414-8854.

If you are planning to breastfeed, Parkwest offers classes during the prenatal period to help prepare families for breastfeeding.

The Childbirth Center also employs board certified lactation consultants who make rounds to see breastfeeding patients while they are in the hospital. While the Childbirth Center nursing staff are also trained to assist with breastfeeding, lactation consultants can assist with latch-on difficulties and other feeding problems during your stay in the hospital.

Mothers experiencing feeding difficulties at the time of discharge may receive a feeding plan to explain alternative feeding methods and the use of an electric breast pump to help the mother establish and maintain her supply until the baby is nursing well.

TLC: Breastfeeding Support Group

We also offer mothers the following support and resources for breastfeeding:

• Parkwest’s Breastfeeding Guide
• www.breastfeeding.com
• www.LLLI.org
• www.ILCA.org

Parkwest Therapy Center at Fort Sanders West has easy access with free parking. Through this center, we provide specialized physical therapy treatments for women of all ages and walks of life.

Special women’s health programs offered here include—

Pregnancy care

To assist with severe low back or pelvic pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, thoracic outlet syndrome, tendonitis, and other musculoskeletal difficulties.

Postpartum care

To assist with stress urinary incontinence, pelvic floor trauma, episiotomy scar pain, and help in establishment of exercise programs.

Urinary incontinence and pelvic pain

These problems can occur throughout a woman’s life cycle and can be treated conservatively through exercise, behavioral modification, muscular stretching and retraining, modalities, and many other therapeutic techniques.

Physician referral is required and most insurance plans are accepted. Call 865-531-5710 for more information.

When you’re scheduled for a cesarean section or induction, there is a possibility that your procedure will have to be rescheduled or postponed due to an unanticipated increase in laboring patients.

If this is necessary, a member of the Childbirth Center staff will call you the night before, or the morning of the procedure.

We know that special arrangements have been made, and we truly regret any inconvenience. All efforts will be made to accommodate you, and we look forward to giving you the best possible birthing experience.

If you have any questions or concerns, please talk with your physician or contact the Childbirth Center at 865-373-4299.