The World Health Organization has declared 2020 the "year of the nurse and midwife."
At the University of Tennessee Medical Center, it's a program that is growing fast.
Jodie Simms-MacLeod leads the hospital's five midwives.
It's a small team, in growing demand.
"I think a lot of people are looking for a different type of healthcare, a more personalized form of healthcare," she said.
The UT Medical Center's midwives have a Master's in their field. They provide complete gynecological care to women pregnant or not -- from conception through menopause.
When it comes to babies, midwives deliver instead of physicians.
"Midwives don't perform surgery, so if anything was to arise during labor where a patient needs like a c-section, then there's always a physician on call 24/7," Simms-MacLeod said.
Midwives aren't the same as doulas who provide emotional and physical support to mothers during labor.
They are medical professionals that specialize in low-intervention births, but they can and often do give medication like epidurals.
"Midwives are known to have lower c-section rates and increased breastfeeding rates," Simms-MacLeod said.
But she thinks it's the way midwives provide care that attracts moms.
"We tend to be more relationship-focused and we really try to provide more individual holistic care," she said.
The University midwives average about 12 babies a month, she said. Right now, Tennova's midwifery practice is operating out of the hospital. They deliver 40-50 babies a month but will move to the birthing center at Tennova North in Powell when it opens next year.