{"id":481667,"date":"2026-06-17T09:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481667\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T09:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:15:11","slug":"hospital-referred-doula-to-police-after-fatal-victoria-free-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481667\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospital referred doula to police after fatal Victoria free birth"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unregistered doula present during a wellness influencer’s fatal free birth<\/a> was referred to police after doctors expressed concerns about her risk to public health, an inquest has been told.<\/p>\n

Stacey Warnecke, 30, had been undergoing a free birth at her Melbourne home with unregistered doula Emily Lal and her husband Nathan on September 29.<\/p>\n

A free birth, unlike a home birth where a registered midwife is present, is done intentionally without any medical professionals.<\/p>\n

Her baby boy Axel was healthy but Warnecke’s condition soon rapidly declined.<\/p>\n

She was rushed to Frankston Hospital suffering multiple cardiac arrests after appearing hot, pale, gasping for air and going in and out of consciousness.<\/p>\n

Doctors worked desperately to save her, including performing two separate surgeries \u2013 a hysterectomy and draining fluid that had pooled around her heart.<\/p>\n

An entire supply of Warnecke’s blood type was used up, but she died of blood loss from a postpartum haemorrhage, the Victorian Coroners Court was told.<\/p>\n

\"Nathan<\/p>\n

Nathan Warnecke with Axel. (Source: GoFundMe) (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

After the death, senior and executive hospital staff convened a “red light” meeting.<\/p>\n

The meetings, which would usually be called 24 to 48 hours after a significant incident, was called on the same day Warnecke died, Bayside Health Peninsula executive Shyaman Menon told the court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

During the meeting, a senior hospital executive raised an issue about language Ms Lal had used during her care of the new mother, despite identifying herself as a friend.<\/p>\n

“The language used was more than what a general public member would understand,” he told the inquest.<\/p>\n

“That raised a concern whether there was someone who had an element of knowledge providing that care.”<\/p>\n

The concern was around what advice was or was not provided during the birth at Warnecke’s home, and he was obligated to refer Lal to police following concerns of a “public health risk”.<\/p>\n

Counsel assisting Rachel Ellyard asked if the concern was that Lal had provided advice in circumstances where she didn’t have medical training.<\/p>\n

“Correct,” he replied.<\/p>\n

Frankston Hospital Director of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Dr Nisha Khot told the inquest postpartum haemorrhage is the most common complication of childbirth.<\/p>\n

She said clinicians are trained to look for signs, including increased heart rate, decreased blood pressure, the woman feeling uneasy, uncomfortable, cold and clammy or losing lucidity.<\/p>\n

In the triple-zero call, Lal said she believed Warnecke may have been experiencing a panic attack and said couldn’t see any signs of further bleeding after the birth.<\/p>\n

Khot said the longer labour goes on \u2013 in Warnecke’s case, it spanned days \u2013 the more likely a woman is to have a significant bleed after the baby is born.<\/p>\n

“We may not always see the blood externally, we also know the blood we see we tend to underestimate how much it is,” she said.<\/p>\n

The hearing continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An unregistered doula present during a wellness influencer’s fatal free birth was referred to police after doctors expressed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481668,"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-481667","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\/481667","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=481667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}