![\"Nathan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/nathan-warnecke-with-axel-VIUIHQCWTNFTXCTZA7KQSZLKOM.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAn emergency call made hours before a wellness influencer died after giving birth at home has been played in a Victoria court for the first time.<\/p>\n
Stacey Warnecke, 30, had opted for a free birth for her firstborn in the presence of her husband Nathan and paid unregistered doula Emily Lal at a Melbourne home on September 29.<\/p>\n
A free birth, unlike a home birth where a registered midwife is present, is done without any medical professionals.<\/p>\n
Her baby boy Axel was healthy, but Warnecke’s condition rapidly declined.<\/p>\n
An emergency call made at 4.30am raising concerns about her declining health was played in the Victorian Coroners Court on Monday.<\/p>\n
Warnecke could be heard telling the operator his wife was having trouble breathing after giving birth at home.<\/p>\n
The phone was then passed to Lal who, when asked if she was the midwife, told the operator she was a “friend”.<\/p>\n
She said the new mother had been bleeding, but it had stopped, while her breathing complications “kinda comes and goes”.<\/p>\n
Sounds of Axel crying and Warnecke’s rapid breathing could be heard in the background.<\/p>\n
The first paramedic to arrive about 10 minutes later found Warnecke lying on the floor, skin yellow, clammy and short of breath.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nathan Warnecke with Axel. (Source: GoFundMe)<\/p>\n
A large blood clot was on the ground, and she was going in and out of consciousness.<\/p>\n
She was rushed to Frankston Hospital about two hours after the birth, where she suffered multiple cardiac arrests.<\/p>\n
Doctors worked desperately to save her, including performing two separate surgeries \u2013 a hysterectomy to stem the bleeding and draining almost a litre of fluid that had pooled in her heart.<\/p>\n
The hospital’s entire supply of Warnecke’s blood type was used up, but she died from blood loss.<\/p>\n
Warnecke was described as a vibrant, intelligent and thoughtful woman, who excelled at school and had a thirst for knowledge.<\/p>\n
After experiencing Victoria’s Covid-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates, Warnecke did not want to give birth in the health system, counsel assisting Rachel Ellyard said.<\/p>\n
She said the expectant mother had a strong wish to avoid the “cascade” of “excessive” medical interventions, invasive medical tests and a C-section birth.<\/p>\n
“She had a deep fear of birth trauma \u2013 what would happen [if there were complications] that would have … exposed her to interventions that she would not choose,” counsel assisting told the court.<\/p>\n
“The only way to have a baby on her own terms was to look for a free birth.”<\/p>\n
Pathologist Michael Burke, who conducted the autopsy, said Warnecke died from a postpartum haemorrhage.<\/p>\n
“It is rare for a woman to die in childbirth \u2013 a person who dies from blood loss, it is eminently treatable if recognised quickly and treated quickly,” he said<\/p>\n
Coroner Therese McCarthy is investigating the circumstances of Warnecke’s death, whether she would have survived with earlier medical intervention and risks associated with free birthing.<\/p>\n
Lal will give evidence at the inquest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An emergency call made hours before a wellness influencer died after giving birth at home has been played…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,42,134,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-479610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}