Rhianna Benson
A birthkeeper has been probed over the death of Australian influencer Stacey Warnecke, who tragically passed away after labour.
Warnecke gave birth to a baby boy named Axel at her home in Seaford, Melbourne, last September, and then began suffering a lethal post-partum haemorrhage.
The 30-year-old first-time mum began struggling to breathe and bleeding profusely as her skin turned white.
Warnecke was rushed to Frankston Hospital, where a 'red light' meeting took place.
Advert
Despite attempts to save her life by cardiologists and medics preparing her for an emergency hysterectomy, the wellness star sadly died.
In the days that followed, staff at the major medical unit began raising concerns regarding what happened to Warnecke, specifically with regard to the conduct of her 'birthkeeper', Emily Lal.
Lal, an unregistered doula who went by the title 'Authentic Birth Keeper', had been paid $6,000 by Warnecke to assist with her 'freebirth'.
She'd been present along with Warnecke's partner, Nathan, when the social media star's health took a dark turn.
Associate Professor Shyaman Menon, who is the Chief Medical Officer at Peninsula Health, decided to go to the police with his concerns regarding Lal, specifically the language she used to explain Warnecke's decline to hospital staff and what she'd told the internet star during her labour.
Contacting the authorities is something that Menon claimed during a coronial inquest that took place yesterday he'd never had to do before in his professional career.
Despite investigating officers subsequently contacting Lal, she refused to provide them with a statement, however.
This week, she gave evidence to the court on the condition that it cannot be used against her in criminal or civil proceedings in the future.
Menon said in court: "We knew there was a person named Emily at the birth. (Concerns were) raised around language used during the treatment, when care was delivered. (The) feeling was that language used (by Ms Lal) was more than a general public member would understand.
"And which raised concern whether there was someone who had an element of knowledge being provided during that care."
He added that his staff had been concerned 'in terms of advice - or whether there was not advice being provided'.
The Professor was also asked whether Lal's advice had been relevant to the outcome of Warnecke's death, to which he replied, 'Correct'.
"In circumstances where (Ms Lal) didn’t have medical training?" he was also asked, providing the same response.
Attendees also heard that emergency care had been delayed for several minutes, as Lal would only call an ambulance if Warnecke consented.
Lal claimed she'd asked Warnecke twice if she sought an ambulance, but that she'd been told no. It was only on the third occasion that the emergency services were called.
"I asked her for an ambulance three times," Lal recalled. "(Stacey) started gasping and saying she couldn’t breathe.”
She added that her action had been spurred by a desire to protect Warnecke's 'autonomy', telling the court: "I don’t know how many times I need to reiterate this. There was no way I was going to call an ambulance against her wishes.
"If someone was going to override her decision, it wasn’t going to be me."
Lal was asked why she refused to provide a statement to police in the aftermath of the incident, and why she'd removed a blood-stained carpet from Warnecke's home following her death.
"One conclusion that might be drawn … 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 from having been involved in the freebirth," she was told.
"Do you see how someone might draw that inference, that you were acting out of self-protection, in firstly cleaning up, secondly getting rid of the carpet and, thirdly, refusing to give a statement?"
Responding, Lal claimed: "I think that's really unfair, honestly. [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. I thought I was doing something nice by cleaning it up for him."
The inquest will continue this week as a judge examines whether Warnecke's death had been preventable, and whether a qualified professional could have responded to the major internal bleed she'd suffered.