To find this desperately sad? TW: freebirth death

[ExtraHotDoubleShot]

I just feel so sad for her husband and little boy. I also understand why she didn’t want to go into hospital. Feels like women are stuck between a rock and a hard place with childbirth at the moment.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/20/stacey-warnecke-melbourne-influencer-died-freebirth-inquest-ntwnfb

I had planned a home birth, but when I went into labour that night, no NHS midwives were available, so I ended up giving birth with only my husband and toddler present.

Whats 'hypovolaemic shock'?

How do they determine the difference between a normal 1in4 PPH and a 1in200?

Not sure if it was you who gave that statistic but you sound like you know what your talking about.

There is no end to the crazy, but this is a world in which flat earthers and breatharians and all sorts of anti-science bollocks exists and charges people thousands of dollars for gathering to reinforce their irrational beliefs.

In my case, there was a shortage of midwives, so there wasn’t one available the night I went into labour.

Did you make the choice not to head into hospital?
(No judgement)

Sure - but presumably you had midwife appointments and checks before then and if you had been told that they found strong risk indicators such that they strongly advised you against home birth as your risk of serious complications was too high, you would have listened? And if you were idebtified as high risk and you insisted on home birth against all medical advice they would have had a flag on your record to warn them about it at the moment when someone made the judgement not to send someone out to you? And were you given any info about warning signs to look out for to tell you to abandon the home birth plan and get yourself to hospital? Freebirthers have none of that.

Statistically it is one of the most dangerous thing you can so, the other is be born which you clearly managed.

This is the precarious situation you are in as a doula at a freebirth. If you call it in, they could say you were acting as a midwife.

When I did my doula training (about 12 years ago now) freebirthing women was a big topic at the course. Back then, there was more discussion about exactly how a doula should support a woman who is freebirthing and how to stay within your realm. Now, from my understanding, there is more agreement from Doula Organisations that you cannot be "just a doula" at a freebirth and therefore, doulas should not support women who intend to have one because they only want you there to provide what is medical experience.

Not all individual doulas agree with this, but the organisations that educate and accredit doulas seem to be saying this more plainly.

People only need to read the most basic history book to realise that having someone trained present with you is vital. Just look around your friends and family. How many would have survived their pregnancy and delivery if it wasn’t for modern medicine?
As pp said - some women don’t have any choice but to do it alone and hope for the best. For this woman it was a conscious choice albeit a stupid one.

My labour happened very quickly. My waters broke, so my husband rang the midwife and was told there wasn’t one available but they would ring back. By this time, I could feel the head and wanted to push. There was no way I would’ve made it to hospital.

They simply don't believe birth is dangerous.

In a way, I can see how they get there, because they don't realise exactly how important preventative care is. Unfortunately, effective preventative treatment often looks pointless. Thinking about it, an uneducated observer could have watched my first birth, which was high risk for PPH, and gone away thinking "she could have given birth at home on her own without any of this hassle". And maybe I would have been fine. But it would be irresponsible to conclude that for sure and advise women to freebirth based on my experience, because while I was cuddling the baby, the midwives were preventing any excess bleeding with evidence-based treatment like massages, active management of the placenta and an injection.

Who knows. I think a lot of the time these days, it’s an intense love and fixation with Insta etc, the results of which don’t come off so well in hospital settings versus what can be ‘engineered’ for it at home.

This depends on where you live, whether you have access to medical care, and the mother’s health. I know I was safer delivering my second baby at home with no midwife (one wasn’t available) than if I had tried to go to the hospital. I would’ve ended up giving birth in the car. The night I gave birth there were no midwives available, so I’m glad I was at home, not the hospital, as I was more relaxed.

I don't need to look far, I would most likely be dead.
BTW I had no real idea how perilous my situation was until the dot I was watching on the ceiling was starting to go blurry. The dozen folk in the room knew but I was a bit thick and slow to catch on.

The birth bit was ok, pessary, 4 wee pills and a hot bath 🛀.

Why did I just look that stuff up?

Global Death Toll: Estimates range from about 43,000 deaths annually (approx. one death every 12 minutes) up to 70,000 deaths annually (approx. one death every 6 minutes) according to World Health Organization (WHO) and The Lancet data.

OK the majority will be in poor countries without adequate health care.
But its still a sobering though. I could so easily have been one of them.

BTW thanks to people who donate blood, most appreciated 👏

Maybe these influencers are doing a good job of making people realise how important health care is giving birth. The only two I've heard of are both deceased.

Yep. My sister in law was told to consider a home birth (by a midwife!!! A PALS complaint was made) because of her first labour being fast (baby would’ve died if born at home in her first pregnancy). She didn’t listen and went to hospital. Thank god she did. Shoulder dystocia and a huge PP bleed that would’ve killed them both had it happened anywhere other than the theatre she gave birth in.

In Afghanistan under Taliban rule where women are banned from education (no female doctors, no midwives), are banned from being seen by a male doctor and are banned from travel without a male companion, there is a 1 in 4 lifetime risk of death giving birth.

This doesn't mean one in 4 women in labour will die, rather that over the course of their reproductive life, with multiple pregnancies and births, 1 in 4 will die from a pregnancy/birth complication.
I have 3 sisters, in Afghanistan one of us would have already died.

This is a situation where women are forced to 'freebirth'.

Women who freebirth with access to an army of highly trained health workers, access to pain relief and neonatal care are crackers.

That is crazy.
There is a good reason why maternity care exists.
A home birth is a different situation.

Hypovolaemic shock, bleeding to death. Lost so much blood the body does not have enough to send to the organs that need it. The brain, the heart, the lungs. Awful.
How can one tell you ask.
Well, by looking at the blood, is it roughly the quantity of blood you'd expect from tipping out a 500ml bottle of coke (considered a haemorrhage, but most healthy women will recover with rest and eating well) or is it a 2l bottle in which case she will need intensive support and the bleeding needs to be stopped now.

I was a midwife and had a woman die from a pph. She lost 2000ml, had to have an emergency hysterectomy, her heart stopped 4x in theatre and we somehow managed to pull her back. She died in ITU some weeks later.

Truly awful.

@OhBotherSaidPoo “Women who freebirth are crackers.”

Women often know their own bodies better than anyone else. I chose a home birth, but the night I gave birth there were no midwives available. There was no time to go to hospital as my labour and birth was very fast. If there had been time, I’m not sure I would have gone.

I would’ve been stressed in hospital, and there were no midwives available, so I would have been left on my own. I was so much more relaxed at home giving birth with just my husband and toddler.

Stress plays a significant role in how labour and birth progress.

You didn't freebirth, you had a baby before help arrived. Massive difference.

I had no idea I was pregnant. I gave birth in the car.

That must have been such a shock!

Oh god how traumatic for everyone involved,
im so sorry.

I remember reading This is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay where this happened. The woman’s placenta was laying over the cervix and somehow scans hadn’t picked it up. She went into labour and had a massive PPH, baby was stillborn, she had to have a full hysterectomy and thankfully survived but would never have children naturally (baby was her first).

These stories are just absolutely devastating.

Oh wow! Thank God you were both safe.