Inquest into Melbourne influencer’s death following freebirth halted after new phone evidence discovered

The closing submissions in an inquest into the death of a woman who gave birth at home with no support from medically trained health workers has been delayed, after new evidence came to light following a forensic analysis of her mobile phone.

Stacey Warnecke, a 30 year-old nutritionist, died on 29 September in Frankston hospital in Melbourne.

Warnecke, a wellness influencer, had paid birthkeeper Emily Lal $6,000 to support her to give birth at home without any medically trained staff involved, in what is sometimes called a “freebirth”.

Birthkeepers have no medical training and operate outside of the medical system.

The court heard Warnecke suffered a massive postpartum haemorrhage after she gave birth to the placenta, with an ambulance called approximately half an hour after the bleed was first noticed. Warnecke told Lal and her husband, Nathan, that she was short of breath and needed to lie down following the bleed.

In her evidence on Tuesday, Lal told the inquest that although she had been paid to support Lal, her role was primarily that of a supportive friend, that she was not clinically trained, and that it was not her responsibility to make Warneck’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.

Lal also told the inquest that she no longer had access to texts Warnecke sent to her alerting her that she had gone into labour on 26 September, or any texts after that.

“I got a new phone and lost everything,” Lal told the court. Counsel assisting the coroner, Rachel Ellyard, asked Lal when she lost her phone, with Lal replying, “October or November, I can’t remember”.

Lal added that she then mainly texted Warnecke’s husband, Nathan, before going to their home to support the birth.

Lal gave evidence on the condition that the coroner granted her protection against her answers being used against her in future civil or criminal proceedings.

The inquest had been due to close on Friday.

On Thursday afternoon, Ellyard told that coroner that the contents of a forensic analysis of Warnecke’s phone had been made available to the court.

“It seems to me that the contents that have been made available raise issues that are going to require some further investigation and perhaps the gathering of further evidence,” Ellyard said.

As a result, the court was adjourned to a date yet to be determined.

Addressing Warnecke’s family members, who were listening to the inquest online, coroner Therese McCarthy said “sometimes investigations… take a different course because new information comes to hand”.