Influencer tragically bled out during unassisted home birth after twice refusing medical assistance
An inquest into the death of influencer Stacey Warnecke has heard that she twice refused an ambulance after she started bleeding following a home birth.
The Australian influencer died on 29 September last year, with a medical examiner proposing that her cause of death was 'postpartum haemorrhage in the setting of a home birth'.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the woman had given birth to her son Axel at home, with her husband Nathan and Emily Lal, a doula, which is a non-medical individual there to provide support.
She had chosen a freebirth which means the mother gives birth at home without trained medical professionals.
The inquest heard that Warnecke started bleeding heavily after delivering the placenta and started gasping for air, and that she only agreed to have an ambulance called the third time she was asked after she'd said no the first two times.
When paramedics arrived they found the 30-year-old woman lying on the floor with cold skin and took her to Frankston Hospital, when she was moved from the stretcher in the ambulance to a hospital bed there was a 'big gush of blood'.
Hospital staff performed an emergency hysterectomy on Warnecke in an attempt to stop the bleeding, and the hospital's supply of her blood type was exhausted from efforts to save her life, but she suffered multiple cardiac arrests and died.
The inquest was told that hospital staff made 'heroic efforts' to save the woman's life.
In a statement provided to the inquest her husband Nathan said his late wife had 'a strong view about the cascade of interventions that can occur within a hospital environment, and a strong wish to avoid them'.
Warnecke, who promoted a 'chemical free' lifestyle in her influencer work, had chosen to have a freebirth as she felt it was the only way to have a baby entirely on her own terms, the inquest heard.
She had refused antenatal screening, including routine ultrasounds, and decided not to have a registered midwife with her during the birth.
Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine pathologist Michael Burke told the inquest that the 30-year-old had died because she'd suffered huge blood loss that triggered complications including heart failure.
"It is rare for a woman to die in childbirth," he said, adding that blood loss during childbirth was 'immediately treatable if it is recognised quickly and managed correctly'.
According to The Guardian, doula Emily Lal told the inquest she had been paid $6,000 to be present at the birth, and was 'not there to make a birth safer'.
"How would I help people stay safe during birth?” Lal replied after being asked if she saw her role as keeping mothers safe.
"I don’t think me being there makes the birth more safe. I’m attending as a friend in a support role.
"I wouldn’t say to her, ‘I think you’ve lost too much blood.’ That’s not my role."
She also said that Warnecke had asked her if the blood loss was normal, and she'd said it was 'more than I would consider to be normal'.
Joe Harker