Mana Muhajir, a Certified Professional Midwife, faces a license suspension after a woman complained she was not properly cared for and lost her unborn baby.
MESA, Ariz. — An East Valley midwife faces a license suspension after a woman complained she was not properly cared for and lost her unborn baby as a result.
Thursday, Mana Muhajir, a Certified Professional Midwife, will attend her first hearing following an Arizona Department of Health Services investigation.
Muhajir is one of two Willow Birth Center midwives facing a license suspension for one year, by the Arizona Department of Health Services. According to the state’s filings Muhajir faces six violations, including delays in heart tone monitoring, failing to establish an emergency care plan and failing to assess for vitals.
A second Certified Professional Midwife, Nicole Amador, also faces a license suspension for up to one year. Amador faces one violation for delays in heart tone monitoring. Amador’s pre-hearing conference is set for April 1, according to the Office of Administrative Hearings.
Both midwives work for Mesa’s Willow Birth Center and are still listed as employees on the facility’s website. The suspension hearings come after parents Noelle and Dylan Zmrzel complained to the state after their baby James was stillborn.
Noelle Zmrzel was 41 weeks and six days pregnant. She labored for more than 30 hours at the Willow Center before being rushed to the hospital. “In the moment, we were just processing it was extremely we weren’t expecting it,” Noelle said. “It was extremely sudden.”
The Zmrzels through their attorneys, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Willow Birth Center following baby James passing. A spokesperson for Willow did not comment on the lawsuit and told 12News they deny ADHS’s findings.
The state claims midwives are supposed to monitor heart rates every 15 minutes after a certain point in labor, and said that Muhajir was consistently late, at one point not recording a heartbeat for one hour and 32 minutes.
The Willow center sent its own letter to the state and shared it with 12News. It said, “As part of on-going quality assurance for Willow, an internal interdisciplinary team of midwives have examined this case and found that the midwives met or exceeded the standard of care.” The Willow letter added, “While this outcome is devastating, it does not automatically mean that there were issues with the care received.”
The hearing is one step in the process to determining if Muhajir will ultimately have her license suspended for up to one year. In an email, 12News asked ADHS if they could generally explain how the hearings work, and what to expect moving forward. A department spokesperson said they are working on the request.
12News was granted media access to anything non-confidential at the hearing. No audio or video recording is allowed.
>> Download the 12News app for the latest local breaking news straight to your phone.