![\"Stacey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JMXPBW_c5aa4560f906e021bf2bb78fda63b012_avif.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nBy Jesse Thompson and Kristian Silva, ABC News<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nStacey Warnecke, also known as Stacey Hatfield, who died after giving birth at home.
\nPhoto: Instagram \/ Natural Spoonfuls\n<\/p>\n
A court probing the death of a wellness influencer after a freebirth has heard that emergency care was delayed for several minutes because her “birth keeper” would only call an ambulance if she consented.<\/p>\n
Melbourne woman Stacey Warnecke died of postpartum haemorrhage shortly after giving birth at home with only her partner, Nathan, and her doula, Emily Lal, present last September.<\/p>\n
As well as probing the circumstances of Warnecke’s death and the role Lal played during the free birth, a coronial inquest is examining the broader issue of freebirths, which take place without a medical professional present.<\/p>\n
These differ from homebirths, which take place in the presence of a midwife.<\/p>\n
Lal, who did not profess to have any medical qualifications, was called to give evidence before the Coroners Court of Victoria on Tuesday after being granted a certificate protecting her from self-incrimination.<\/p>\n
She relayed how Warnecke’s condition quickly deteriorated after she passed her placenta last September, and the young mother asked Lal if her significant blood loss was normal.<\/p>\n
“I said: ‘It’s more than I would consider to be normal,'” Lal said.<\/p>\n
Lal said she then asked her client three times over five minutes if she would like an ambulance to be called.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old was said to be gasping and having difficulty breathing by time she consented.<\/p>\n
“Why did you take no for an answer?” counsel assisting the coroner Rachel Ellyard asked.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know how many times I can reiterate,” Lal replied.<\/p>\n
“Her autonomy was very important to her. There was no way I was going to call an ambulance against her wishes.”<\/p>\n
While Warnecke’s baby survived, the young mother was later pronounced dead at hospital.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JMXPBA_2203dc4ab9c1f3f1df02023434beba60_avif.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe inquest is being held at the Coroners Court of Victoria.
\nPhoto: ABC News \/ Melissa Brown\n<\/p>\n
Doula refused to provide police statement<\/p>\n
The court heard Warnecke agreed to pay Lal $6000 and spent between 15 and 20 hours preparing the 30-year-old for her birth, providing domestic help and getting to know her.<\/p>\n
Warnecke’s contractions started on 26 September and Lal was summoned to her Seaford home after they intensified some time later.<\/p>\n
Lal recalled finding her “happy and smiling” in a birth pool and supported the 30-year-old until she gave birth early on 29 September.<\/p>\n
She initially believed Warnecke was having a panic attack in the deterioration that followed.<\/p>\n
After Warnecke’s death, Lal returned to the couple’s Seaford home to clean up blood that had soaked through towels and the carpet.<\/p>\n
Asked if she considered that evidence like blood loss might need to be assessed later, Lal said: “It didn’t even cross my mind.”<\/p>\n
She refused to give a statement when later contacted by police, telling the court she was not legally required to and previous media reporting on a separate case had deterred her.<\/p>\n
“One conclusion that might be drawn \u2026 from your cleaning up, your taking away the blood-stained carpet and your refusal to give a statement was that you were worried about consequences for you,” Ellyard put to Lal.<\/p>\n
“Do you see how someone might draw that inference, that you were acting out of self-protection?”<\/p>\n
Lal replied: “I think that’s really unfair, honestly.<\/p>\n
“[Nathan’s] wife had just died and I thought the last thing he wants to see is the mess from what’s caused her death.<\/p>\n
“I thought I was doing something nice by cleaning it up for him,” Lal said.<\/p>\n
‘I’m not clinically trained’<\/p>\n
Much of Tuesday’s evidence focused on the nature of the guidance Lal would offer her clients over the course of about five years.<\/p>\n
She told the court she would only offer advice based on her own experiences of giving birth to four children at home, as well as two courses and self-education she undertook afterwards<\/p>\n
“I wouldn’t say to her, ‘I think you’ve lost too much blood or something like that’. It’s not my role,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ellyard countered that Lal might be the only person in the room with experience of giving birth.<\/p>\n
“But I don’t know what’s too much,” she replied.<\/p>\n
“I’m not clinically trained. It’s not my role to assess blood loss.”<\/p>\n
Lal is no longer offering her services.<\/p>\n
Asked whether freebirth was the safest way for Warnecke to give birth, Lal responded that safety was subjective but conceded that she didn’t think freebirth was “the safest option for a lot of women”.<\/p>\n
She told the court that she remained “sad and distressed to this day over Stacey’s death”.<\/p>\n
A ‘vibrant, intelligent and thoughtful woman’<\/p>\n
On Monday, Coroner Therese McCarthy said Warnecke was a “vibrant, intelligent and thoughtful woman”.<\/p>\n
Worried about the potential of cascading medical interventions, Warnecke did not have any antenatal care and was desperate to avoid an induced labour or a Caesarean section, the coroner said.<\/p>\n
“She had a deep fear of what might happen to her,” the coroner said.<\/p>\n
The court heard that Nathan told a triple-0 operator that his wife was having trouble breathing after she decided to have an ambulance called.<\/p>\n
When paramedics arrived, the 30-year-old was lying on the floor, breathing rapidly and had an “altered conscious state”, Ellyard said.<\/p>\n
Warnecke was taken to Frankston Hospital and suffered multiple cardiac arrests. Doctors performed a hysterectomy and heart procedure at the same time in a bid to save her life.<\/p>\n
A pathologist later found her cause of death to be a postpartum haemorrhage.<\/p>\n
Ellyard said hospital staff raised concerns about Lal’s involvement, and whether her advice influenced the tragic outcome.<\/p>\n
The lawyer said the inquest would examine whether the death was preventable, and if a trained professional could have identified risks or better responded to the major internal bleed Warnecke suffered at home.<\/p>\n
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