Hundreds of other women from six north Alabama counties came to them last year for gynecological care.
Statistics quantify success, but they don’t explain how three women from different backgrounds have built a successful medical practice that is owned and operated by women, for women. For that, it’s necessary to understand the bond that makes Brunner, Autery, and Gates more than business partners.
They have a relationship built on years of trust, and each one has leaned on the others while making decisions, whether about a patient or something more personal.
“I will go to them and say, ‘Tell me if I’m thinking of this correctly,’ because I want someone who will help me look at all aspects of a situation,” Autery said.
They have delivered each other’s babies, and they have comforted each other through the death of a child and the death of a parent. They also share a set of core values that guide them professionally and personally.
“We’re all very different, but we are like-minded in our priorities – God, family, practice. There is no compromising on any of that for us,” Gates said.
Brunner, a native of Parrish, moved home from Tennessee in 2007 to establish the practice that was joined by Autery in 2011 and Gates in 2014.
In those early days, Brunner was the only female OB/GYN at Walker Baptist Medical Center.
“When I first came, there were some women who weren’t certain about it, honestly. There were women who had never had a female doctor. Once someone comes in and has that experience, I think they realize that in a lot of cases they are more comfortable discussing very private things and intimate issues with a female. They feel like you can relate to them better because you have been through it yourself,” Brunner said.
The practice grew quickly, especially as the number of OB/GYNs based in Walker County dropped from three to two between 2007 and 2011. Though there was one other physician at the hospital with whom Brunner shared calls, she was essentially working around-the-clock to serve her growing list of patients.
Autery, a native of Birmingham, came to Jasper from a private practice in New Orleans. Her arrival coincided with Brunner and her husband expanding their family. Autery delivered the couple’s first daughter in 2012.
“I think it was a subconscious decision to wait. You can’t really achieve balance between work and family when there is no one else to balance with. You have to have someone you trust to take over for you and to take care of your patients so you can carve out some protected time with your family,” Brunner said.
The three women now have a combined total of six children who range in age from 10 to 5. (Gates and her husband also lost a daughter shortly after birth in 2015.)
Besides offering office space, the upstairs of Walker Women’s Specialists is also used as living quarters by the doctors when they are on call at the hospital, and their children spend a great deal of time there as well.
“We integrate our family into our work. On any given day, someone’s kids might be here. If you had gone upstairs a few years ago, you would have seen bouncers, a breast pump, something for them (the babies) to sleep in,” Brunner said.
In addition to three physicians, Walker Women’s Specialists also employs 18 staff members, all female, who have their own family obligations.
“We suck it up for each other. If one of them (Brunner or Autery) has a school event that falls on her call day and it’s my half day, I don’t have any problem saying, ‘Go.’ We stress that with our employees too. We tell them, ‘We don’t want you to miss anything for your children on our behalf,’” Gates said.
When Gates joined the practice in 2014, Walker Women’s Specialists was still located in a suite in the Medical Arts Tower at Walker Baptist Medical Center. It opened in its current location on Blackwell Dairy Road in 2017.
