Instead of celebrating a birth, a Valley couple had to say goodbye to their baby after a prolonged labor at a Mesa birthing center ended with a stillbirth.
Noelle Zmrzel has blamed the care she received at Willow Midwife Center for Birth and Wellness for what became a medical emergency. She had filed complaints against two midwives with the Arizona Department of Health Services, and she’s planning a lawsuit.
In 2023, Noelle and Dylan Zmrzel were expecting their first baby, who they planned to name James.
“We had our son's room all set up,” said Dylan.
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Noelle said she chose the birthing center because she “liked the idea of medical freedom and choices and how your care would go.”
Noelle said she was past her due date - 41 weeks, 6 days gestation - when she was induced at Willow, and she said her labor lasted 30 hours.
“There was a lot of meconium, which there had been meconium, like throughout the whole time there, but they said there was a lot,” Noelle said. “They checked the heart rate, and it was very low, and that's when they made the call to call 911.”
At the hospital, Noelle said baby James's heart stopped and he was stillborn.
“They waited so long and wasted so much time,” Dylan said. “If we were minutes earlier, we would have a baby right now.”
Noelle made a complaint with the Arizona Department of Health Services, which licenses birth centers and non-nurse midwives.
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In an email to the ADHS investigator, Noelle said her vital checks were usually done by a birth assistant, not the midwife, and the midwives cervical checks happened hours apart.
“We even asked should we go by the hospital for some sort of pain mitigation because she's like, really struggling?” Dylan recalled. “The midwife told me, ‘No, you guys are just, like, overreacting because this is your first child.”
“The family was very diligent about their own health, but what we've seen from the midwives is - is not that sense of urgency,” said John Kelly, an attorney representing the Zmrzels.
Kelly points to a recently settled lawsuit involving another couple who said their newborn baby died after going to Willow for labor and delivery in 2023. That family had a different midwife.
Kelly plans to file a lawsuit on behalf of the Zrmzels.
“I think the goal here, obviously, is to make change in the way that midwives at Willow, specifically, but maybe broader, take care of families,” Kelly said.
MORE: Learn how and why ABC15 created a statewide, searchable midwife database
A spokeswoman for Willow Midwife Center for Birth and Wellness said they cannot comment on this case due to health privacy laws, but she did say the facility is accredited and managed by two certified nurse-midwives with doctorates.
Willow’s statement, emailed to ABC15, addressed overall safety:
"Hundreds of families a year choose to birth with Willow. For patients who are healthy and low-risk, it is an excellent and safe choice. As part of rigorous accreditation demands, the birth center shares its data and outcomes and participates in national quality assurance protocols.
Nevertheless, even in a setting like Willow, transfers are sometimes necessary. According to the 2020 Neonatal Resuscitation American Heart Association Guidelines, 10% of all newborns require some breathing intervention; only 1% require extensive resuscitative measures at delivery.
It is difficult, if not impossible to predict which healthy, low-risk pregnancies will require resuscitation. For this reason, each Willow birthing suite carries the same resuscitation equipment found in the hospital. Despite all these efforts, it is simply a reality that some infants born at Willow will need to be transferred to the hospital for more extensive breathing intervention.
In 2023, Willow is proud to have assisted in 283 births. Less than 1% (far below the national average) required transfer to a hospital for medical needs."
ABC15 also learned that ADHS regulators inspected Willow after complaints in 2023 and 2024 and found no deficiencies with the health facility.
This month, state health regulators sent letters to Noelle saying that they were able to substantiate her allegations against two licensed midwives, but the specific deficiencies were not listed. Both midwives had 10 days to respond to the state about correcting the violations. Willow Midwife Center told ABC15 that both midwives remain employed at the facility.
