Mother Died After Home Birth: Australian ‘Birthkeeper’ Could Face Criminal Charges, Inquest Hears

A birthkeeper who supported a mother who died after giving birth at home could be referred to prosecutors and face potential criminal charges, a Victorian coroner has heard. The possibility was raised on Monday during closing submissions in the inquest in Victoria, Australia.

The mother who died was Stacey Warnecke. The 30-year-old nutritionist and wellness influencer died in September 2025 at Frankston hospital in Melbourne after giving birth at home and suffering a postpartum haemorrhage. Birthkeeper Emily Lal was by her side during the birth, having been paid $6,000 to support her throughout pregnancy.

The court has heard that birthkeepers have no clinical training and operate outside the medical system. The inquest into Warnecke’s death began in June, but closing submissions to coroner Therese McCarthy were delayed after a forensic analysis of Warnecke’s phone.

Hearings resumed on Monday, when Rachel Ellyard, counsel assisting the coroner, said the completed analysis had revealed numerous messages, including a WhatsApp group chat coordinated by Lal for women who were choosing freebirth. A phone call between Warnecke and Lal was played to the court.

Ellyard said the phone evidence directly contradicted evidence Lal gave in June, that she was hired primarily to play the role of a supportive friend and that the money paid to her was primarily for her time, not for medical advice. “Ms Lal saw her role as to groom her clients into being strong enough to resist the temptation to seek medical help during labor, to seek pain relief during labor, to go to hospital during labor,” Ellyard said.

“It’s clear that Ms Lal thought that in most cases, going to hospital would represent a failure of someone who hadn’t done the work, who hadn’t understood enough what the intensity of labor was going to be,” Ellyard said. During the call, Warnecke told Lal she envisioned having a “wise woman” next to her during her first childbirth, to guide her when asking: “Am I dying, or am I alright?”

Warnecke told Lal she was afraid of the hospital. Lal responded: “You should be scared of the hospital.” She added: “It’s a terrifying place. For me personally, I think the biggest, the key … to actually staying home and having your baby … is that your mindset and your condition needs to be so solid.” Lal also told Warnecke that midwives who attend home births sometimes inadvertently sabotage them, because if the birth goes on too long they tell the woman to go to hospital — sometimes just because the midwife is exhausted, Lal said.

Lal previously told the court she was not clinically trained, and that it was not her responsibility to make Warnecke’s birth safer, or to call an ambulance unless specifically asked. She said she never gave Warnecke medical advice, and only shared her own experiences of freebirthing her own children.

Ellyard said on Monday that, based on the call and the many messages and documents obtained from Warnecke’s phone, the role Warnecke thought Lal would play during the freebirth was to help her by keeping her safe. “Stacey was placing considerable reliance on Ms Lal, in whom she had placed considerable trust,” she said. “Ms Lal was an expert. She was providing advice. She was providing referrals. She was selling supplements. She was offering commentary.” Ellyard said this was inconsistent with just being a friend who pulls your hair back and wipes your forehead; it was something much more structured and deliberate. She said Warnecke’s husband, Nathan, had also been reassured or indoctrinated into a sense that his role was just to sit back and support, and that whatever Stacey experienced was alright.

Lal was invited to return to court to give further evidence after the phone analysis, but declined, the court heard. She gave evidence previously only on the condition that the coroner grant her a certificate of protection so her evidence could not be used against her in future proceedings. Ellyard put it to the coroner that it would be open to her to find Lal had committed perjury in relation to the falsity of her evidence and to refer her to the Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP), which prepares and conducts criminal matters on behalf of the director.

The court previously heard that Lal asked Warnecke three times whether she wanted an ambulance called after she gave birth to the placenta, lost up to 1.5 litres of blood, and then began struggling to breathe. Lal previously told the court it was not her role to call an ambulance against her client’s wishes, even if the woman was unconscious and dying. Warnecke said yes to an ambulance the third time, but by the time paramedics arrived she was seriously unwell, having suffered a massive postpartum haemorrhage. She died in hospital several hours later from related complications, with the hospital exhausting its blood supply trying to save her.

Ellyard said on Monday: “Stacey would have survived if she was in hospital.” She said midwives and doctors know postpartum haemorrhage is the most common complication of childbirth and are so well trained to identify and treat it that, in well-resourced countries, women do not die in hospital from it. Warnecke would also have survived if she was giving birth at home with a registered midwife, Ellyard said: she suffered a known complication of childbirth, which was eminently treatable if identified and responded to immediately. The coroner will deliver her findings at a later date.