Choosing an obstetrician and gynecologist is a long-arc decision. The clinician who guides annual well-woman screening at twenty-five may also deliver a baby at thirty-two, manage perimenopausal hormone shifts at forty-eight, and consult on a hysterectomy at fifty-five. Continuity matters, and so does the technical depth behind the bedside manner: board certification through the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fellowship in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, hospital privileges at facilities equipped for high-acuity labor and delivery, and a working command of evidence-based protocols from ACOG Practice Bulletins to the fourth-trimester postpartum model.
Nashville’s private-practice OB/GYN landscape is dense, but a handful of independent groups have built multi-decade reputations through physician retention, hospital affiliation stability, and quiet word-of-mouth referral. The three practices profiled below are physician-owned, independent of hospital employment, and deliver at the principal Middle Tennessee labor-and-delivery centers: Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown, TriStar Centennial Women’s Hospital, and Vanderbilt-affiliated facilities. Each handles the full obstetric and gynecologic continuum, from first prenatal visit through menopause management, and each maintains in-house subspecialty depth in urogynecology, minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, or high-risk obstetric co-management.
Quick Comparison #
| Firm | Credentials | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Heritage Women's Center | Department within Heritage Medical Associates (founded 1991), fourteen-physician women's health team with Menopause Society Certified Practitioner credential. | Annual well-woman, contraception, prenatal care across trimesters, minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, urogynecology, menopause-focused care. |
| Womens Group of Franklin | Founded 2001, physician-owned with five MDs and DOs plus four women's health nurse practitioners, independent ownership for 25+ years. | Prenatal through postpartum, ACOG-cadence Pap and HPV co-testing, IUD and implant placement, abnormal uterine bleeding workup, menopause management. |
| WOMEN Obstetrics and Gynecology | All-female-provider practice with eight obstetrician-gynecologists and two certified nurse-midwives, three-decade Middle Tennessee presence. | Obstetric care, vaginal and cesarean delivery, robotic-assisted gynecologic surgery on da Vinci platform, infertility workup, adolescent gynecology. |
1. Heritage Women’s Center #
Heritage Women’s Center is the obstetrics and gynecology department within Heritage Medical Associates, the largest independent multi-specialty physician group in Middle Tennessee. The parent organization has operated since 1991, and the Women’s Center sits inside that thirty-plus-year platform, drawing on shared electronic records, laboratory services, and cross-specialty consultation with internal medicine, endocrinology, and urogynecology colleagues under the same roof. The group has built up a fourteen-physician women’s health team alongside advanced-practice nursing support, with main offices on 22nd Avenue North in Nashville and satellite locations in Brentwood and Mt. Juliet.
Clinical Team and Subspecialty Depth #
The Women’s Center physician roster includes Allison Strnad, MD; Anne Rossell, MD; Arielle Grand, MD; Bernadette Meadors, MD; Chibbi Iwelu, MD; Craig Martin, MD; Elizabeth Bleecker, MD; Erin Rebele, MD; Gini Ikwuezunma, MD, MSCR; Joy Cox, MD; Lauren Pinkard, MD, MPH; Nancy Lipsitz, MD, MSCP; and Niharika Saini, DO. The roster blends general obstetrics and gynecology coverage with two subspecialty tracks the practice has cultivated in-house: urogynecology, handled by Dr. Ikwuezunma and Dr. Cox, and menopause-focused care, with Dr. Lipsitz holding the Menopause Society Certified Practitioner credential. That mix lets a patient who started in routine well-woman care stay inside the same practice when pelvic floor or hormonal complaints emerge later, rather than restarting the relationship with an outside specialist.
Service Scope and Surgical Capability #
The group provides annual well-woman exams, contraception counseling and long-acting reversible contraception placement, basic fertility evaluation, prenatal care across all three trimesters, hospital delivery, postpartum follow-up aligned with the ACOG fourth-trimester framework, and gynecologic surgery. Minimally invasive surgical procedures are a core focus, with laparoscopic and hysteroscopic approaches available for fibroid management, abnormal bleeding, endometriosis evaluation, and hysterectomy. Urogynecology services include pelvic-floor evaluation, urinary incontinence workup, and surgical and non-surgical prolapse management. Hospital privileges include Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown and TriStar Centennial Women’s Hospital, the two principal private-sector labor-and-delivery campuses in Nashville.
Visit: Heritage Women’s Center
Address: 222 22nd Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: (615) 564-2964
https://www.heritagemedical.com/departments/heritage-womens-center/
2. Womens Group of Franklin #
Womens Group of Franklin is an independent, physician-owned obstetrics and gynecology practice serving Middle Tennessee from a Cool Springs office on Carothers Parkway. The group was founded in 2001 and has operated continuously under independent ownership for more than two decades, a stretch during which many surrounding OB/GYN practices were absorbed into hospital systems. The practice carries an all-physician core of five MDs and DOs supported by four women’s health nurse practitioners, and it positions itself around individualized care across the full female lifespan, from adolescent gynecology through obstetric care into menopausal management.
Physician Composition and Continuity #
The provider team includes Lynn N. Ellington, MD; Heather D. Rupe, DO; Rebecca S. Eia, DO; Stephanie Dallas, MD; and Nina Fredericks, MD, with women’s health nurse practitioners Ashley Moss, Christa Patton, Erin DeBruyn, and Keri Maizan. The physician group is small enough that prenatal patients typically meet every clinician during the third trimester, which matters because delivery coverage rotates: the doctor on call when labor begins is the doctor who delivers, and patients who have already met that clinician at a routine visit tend to feel the transition more easily. Dr. Rupe has authored published patient-facing pregnancy guidance, and the group’s longstanding presence in the Franklin and southern Davidson County corridor has produced a multi-generational patient base, with adult daughters of original 2001-era patients now establishing care.
Obstetric and Gynecologic Services #
Services span obstetric care from first-trimester confirmation through six-week postpartum visit, including non-invasive prenatal testing options, anatomy ultrasound interpretation, gestational diabetes screening, and high-risk co-management with maternal-fetal medicine when indicated. Gynecologic services cover annual well-woman exams, Pap and HPV co-testing per current ACOG screening intervals, contraceptive management including IUD and implant placement, abnormal uterine bleeding workup, in-office endometrial biopsy, colposcopy, and surgical management of benign gynecologic conditions. The practice also handles adolescent gynecology referrals and menopausal symptom management, including hormone therapy candidacy assessment.
Visit: Womens Group of Franklin
Address: 4323 Carothers Parkway, Suite 208, Franklin, TN 37067
Phone: (615) 778-0010
http://www.obgynfranklin.com/
3. WOMEN Obstetrics and Gynecology #
WOMEN Obstetrics and Gynecology, located on 20th Avenue North near the Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown campus, is an all-female-provider private practice that has served Nashville for more than three decades. The clinic is physician-owned and remains independent of hospital employment, with a roster that includes eight obstetrician-gynecologists and two certified nurse-midwives. The midwifery integration is one of the distinguishing features of the clinic: patients seeking a lower-intervention obstetric experience can build a primary relationship with a CNM while still having the physician team available for surgical and high-acuity needs, all inside one practice.
Provider Roster and Care Model #
Physicians and midwives at the clinic include Nicole Schlechter, MD, PhD; Donna Crowe, MD; Annette Kyzer, MD; Sharon Norman, MD; Amanda Barrett, MD; Shaun McGuinn, MD; Kristin Daniel, MD; Sharon Piper, MD; Angie Long, CNM; and Kayleigh Holthaus, CNM. Dr. Schlechter brings a combined MD-PhD background that adds research-trained pattern recognition to complex cases, while the midwifery team handles physiologic labor support, prenatal education, and well-woman care alongside the physicians. The all-female provider composition is a deliberate practice identity rather than an accident of staffing, and it shapes the practice’s referral pattern: many patients arrive specifically because they want a same-gender clinician for sensitive examinations or for cultural and religious reasons.
Hospital Privileges and Clinical Capabilities #
The group holds delivery privileges at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital and TriStar Centennial Women’s Hospital, which means a patient’s choice of birthing facility is preserved during the prenatal sign-up conversation rather than dictated by the practice. Clinical services include obstetric care across the full prenatal arc, vaginal and cesarean delivery, postpartum follow-up, gynecologic surgery including minimally invasive and robotic-assisted procedures on the da Vinci platform, contraceptive management, infertility workup at the primary-care level, and menopause management. Adolescent gynecology and transition-of-care planning from pediatric to adult women’s health are also handled in-house.
Visit: WOMEN Obstetrics and Gynecology
Address: 300 20th Avenue North, Suite 505, Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: (615) 340-4655
How to Choose Among the Three #
All three practices clear the threshold a careful patient should set: independent physician ownership, multi-decade operating history, hospital privileges at facilities equipped for both routine and complex obstetric care, and physician rosters with board-certified obstetrician-gynecologists working alongside advanced-practice clinicians. The differences are in fit rather than quality.
Heritage Women’s Center offers the deepest in-house subspecialty bench through its connection to a 170-provider multi-specialty group, which is the right answer for patients who anticipate needing cross-specialty coordination, who want an in-network urogynecologist sitting one floor away from their generalist, or who value the laboratory and imaging integration that comes with a larger platform. The Mt. Juliet and Brentwood satellites also reduce drive time for patients east and south of the city.
Womens Group of Franklin is the right fit for patients living in Williamson County or the Cool Springs corridor who want a small-group continuity model where the same five physicians cover the on-call rotation. The practice’s twenty-five-year independent run and its multi-generational patient base are the kind of stability indicators that do not show up in marketing copy but matter when a delivery rotation is the difference between a familiar face and a stranger at 3 a.m.
WOMEN Obstetrics and Gynecology suits patients who specifically want an all-female-provider clinic, who want integrated nurse-midwifery alongside physician care, or who plan to deliver at Saint Thomas Midtown and want a practice located within walking distance of the hospital. The thirty-plus-year operating history and the deliberate midwifery integration are the two differentiators that distinguish the practice from generalist competitors.
Patients narrowing the choice should call each clinic, ask which physician would handle the first prenatal or annual visit, ask which hospital the on-call rotation delivers at on the patient’s projected due-date week, and confirm insurance participation at the plan and group level. The three practices above are credible starting points for that conversation.
Reference Notes #
ABOG Diplomate status requires completion of a four-year accredited residency in obstetrics and gynecology followed by qualifying written and oral certifying examinations administered by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, with ten-year maintenance-of-certification cycles. FACOG designation through the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists indicates Fellow-level membership and adherence to ACOG Practice Bulletins, the evidence-based clinical guidance that drives modern obstetric and gynecologic care, including the postpartum care framework that reorganized the traditional single six-week visit into a fourth-trimester model of ongoing maternal contact. Non-invasive prenatal testing has become a routine first-trimester screening option for chromosomal aneuploidy. Minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, including da Vinci robotic-assisted hysterectomy and myomectomy, has shifted many procedures previously requiring open laparotomy to same-day or short-stay laparoscopic approaches. The Tennessee Maternal Mortality Review Committee, established under state statute, reviews pregnancy-associated deaths and publishes recommendations that shape state-level maternal health policy. Patients researching delivery hospitals can consult US News Best Hospitals rankings for obstetrics and gynecology, which evaluate volume, outcomes, and nursing measures across reporting facilities.
Selection Methodology #
The three practices above were narrowed out of the wider Nashville OB/GYN field using these filters: minimum tenure on Nashville-area patient care, verifiable American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology Diplomate status on file, named practice brand carrying a working street address on the practice’s own website, and a published service scope that maps to patient need without scope-of-practice overreach. National rollups, mid-level-only practices without published physician supervision, and offices without verifiable street addresses were excluded.
Frequently Asked Questions #
Q: How do I verify a Nashville OB/GYN practitioner holds the right credentials?
A: Use the American Board of Medical Specialties Certification Matters lookup at certificationmatters.org, the Tennessee Department of Health practitioner profile at health.tn.gov, and the practice’s own credentialing page.
Q: What sets these three apart from the broader Nashville OB/GYN field?
A: For OB/GYN, hospital privilege portfolio is at least as important as office credentials, because a delivery happens at the facility where the practice holds admitting rights. The three practices above each hold L&D privileges at a Nashville-area hospital equipped for both vaginal and surgical births with available NICU, and the physicians are ABOG board-certified. The next filter is roster composition (independent physician ownership versus hospital-employed group, midwife integration, MFM coordination for high-risk pregnancies) and how the call-share rotation handles labor coverage.
Q: Are any of the three practices paid placements?
A: No. The three profiles above are editorial selections drawn from publicly verifiable sources. No practice sponsored placement.
Q: How should I prepare for a first appointment?
A: Confirm in-network status with your insurer, bring photo ID and a list of current medications, and request the practice’s published new-patient intake forms in advance to streamline the first visit.
Editorial Note #
This guide was published on 2026-05-11 and reflects research current as of that date. Verify licenses, phone numbers, and current business status before engaging any firm.