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

Interventions which aren't well supported by evidence. Such as early inductions where there are no health concerns. In your list of options there is also intervening and it not turning out well. Interventions are not risk free. Inductions and c sections have their own risks. There is also sitting back and watching and it turning out well. In both my pregnancies I was offered interventions I didn't need. Inductions and a c section. They were unnecessary. I reviewed the evidence based on my own reading and understanding of the risks and declined them. I was aware that intervening carries risks and not intervening carries risks. A lot of the discussion on here seems to be implying that going to hospital and interventions by medical staff are risk free when they aren't.

Just a personal perspective to add here, aware that this doesn't add weight either way.

I've had 3 c-sections. 2 emergency after failed inductions, and a 3rd planned (all healthy babies). The emergencies were not really emergency - no alarms or terrifying moments, just a grinding long induced labour that never went anywhere.

The inductions were due to being overdue and hitting the end threshold for that. I'd done lots of hypnobirthing and NCT and I was aware that I could reject it, but I felt more comfortable adhering to the stats and the protocols.

I still believe that had I been left to it, I'd probably have gone in to labour naturally, and probably would have managed without the cascade of interventions. However this is based on nothing - just my feels.

I'm sad about the way it panned out. I don't reject my decision to go with the stats though.

That's fine and right but it is not freebirthing. Having a qualified midwife present, who can monitor, assist and knows when to get additional help is totally different to the scenario in this case. You must be able to see that.

It happening accidentally is different to actively seeking a dangerous situation.

There must be some evidence that inductions are necessary or hospitals just wouldn't do them.

Globally a baby is stillborn every 7 seconds, half of which are in Africa.

My Google tells me the risk of stillbirth increases as the weeks go on. With most having no prior warning that something is going wrong.

So inductions might literally be a numbers game trying to keep still births as low as possible.

On another forum I came across a lady who had an EMCS with her first, which she found traumatic...was advised to have a planned CS with her second, but wanted a vaginal birth, the baby didn't survive...

Absolute rubbish to say that all medical interventions in hospital births happen for good reason - no they don't!
With my second birth they broke my waters for no other reason than they needed the room and my labour was progressing slowly.
This resulted in my baby going into shock, a weeks' stay in hospital after he'd been delivered and permanent hearing problems for my son.
They should have just left me to labour naturally but too busy for that.
My baby after that was a home birth. One of the best days of my life.

Yes, let's take away women's rights over our own bodies, and make it possible for women in labour to be physically dragged, kicking and screaming into a hospital where they can be shackled to the bed in great distress, and forced to give birth that way. That'll go swimmingly!

You’ll just end up with women like this one hiding their entire pregnancy from the medical system and not getting prenatal health care, or women severely traumatised by birth, more prone to PPD, and potentially resenting their babies.

Unfortunately a small percentage of people will always make risky choices, as is their right. Sometimes it will go well, and sometimes...well, it won’t. It's very sad, especially if (the perception of) an overbearing hospital system made her feel as though she’d end up powerless over what happened to her if she went to hospital. It's also a shame if home birth, or a maternity hospital/birthing centre wasn’t an option. But she was an adult capable of making her own (poor) choices.

It’s all fine until it goes wrong. I was the perfect example of an uncomplicated birth at age 27, bmi 20, no medical history of any complications, no medication, baby ideal measures etc…and had I said I’d like a home birth I ticked all the box’s for straightforward tick tick tick…

What no one could have anticipated though was me having a retained placenta and needing an emergency manual removes of it. If that wasn’t done asap I’d have died and bled to death. No one can know if that’s going to happen so the smugness of some makes me cringe becase one minute all can be fine and the next an emergency situation can arise. I would never ever recommend a home birth because if something goes wrong time is not on your side. Again, easy to say when yours went perfectly, point is, no one knows which one will be perfect so don’t take the risk.

@WhoGives2Fucks Why was it an emergency do you know? My placenta was delivered at least 30 mins after the baby had been born as I didn't want it sped up with the injection usually given.

@WhoGives2Fucks
Was this your first baby?

@WhoGives2Fucks that's the scary bit, things can and do go wrong, but we seem to be protected from that harsh reality because the Doctors are very good at mopping up the mess.

@FunPartyIdeas retained placenta is a cause of PPH.

They never really give me a reason for my PPH, other than the placenta coming away too fast. They did take me to theatre and checked for retained placenta

They gave the injection and I was too busy concentrating on DC but then I could sense panic in the room and they said we need to take you to theatre but I didn’t realise the seriousness off it, it’s only later I thought oh wow… it was stuck so they gave me a spinal and pulled it out but it’s the fact you can bleed to death.

Yes

@WhoGives2Fucks It isn't usually advised to have first babies at home so I am surprised if they were "ticking the boxes" so to speak.
I personally wouldn't have wanted a home birth for my first, but opted to for my third as it's statistically as safe as in hosptial for subsequent babies.
Of course retained placenta can happen after a home birth, in which case mother would be transferred in.
My placenta took some time to come, but as I say that's because I chose not to have medical management rather than anything was wrong.

Most women won’t have retained placentas but the problem is it’s impossible to tell. If it’s a certain an ambulance would be there and get you to hospital in 30 mins then that’s fair enough, but that’s where the risk lies, these days it’s not guaranteed at all and that why I’d never consider one. Again the chances are low if it happening but it’s out me right off.

@WhoGives2Fucks Totally understand as having one does increase risk of it happening again unfortunately.

This stupid woman brought her situation on herself. Completely avoidable, but she was ignorant and stubborn.

That’s not reasonable, doulas have a super valuable role to play as support to the person giving birth in addition to (not instead of) midwives and doctors. They are very expensive so not accessible to many but I’m a solo parent and would have done it if it was more affordable. In the US where they are used a bit more there is really strong evidence that they support better birth outcomes. Look up Emily Oster’s articles on it.

I was all up for doulas until someone I know trained to be one. The training literally lasted a few days. I couldn’t believe it. And it was all online. Seriously, look it up.

I think it’s cool if a midwife becomes a doula, but I can’t believe that someone can call themselves a birth expert after minimal training, and then (as they sometimes do) behave as if they know more than an obstetrician.

Have you even read the article? She obviously wasn’t a great candidate for a homebirth but the midwives neglected their most basic functions, to the extent they were grossly negligent.

Ive often wondered if home birth midwives are as incredible as people say, or whether they simply rarely encounter problems because home birth women are usually super healthy and low risk.

Mother and infant deaths are still very low in the uk. This is due to births being in hospital. I think many people are sheltered to the fact that it’s still very dangerous to have children outside a medical setting as things don’t go badly wrong due to better medical care. This goes the same for other developed countries. It’s a stupid risk.

I think most people understand that the price of necessary lifesaving interventions in hospital is more unnecessary interventions in hospital.

And few are really sure which category they fall in to.

I am very grateful to accept the greater probability that my interventions were unnecessary because the price to pay for not being able to access the necessary ones is too high- mine or my baby's death.

That's it really? I accept the risk/ benefit profile on those terms.

I think a lot of guidelines in the UK are very risk averse and fairly arbitrary.

For example giving women 3 hours to push. If everything seems fine after 3 hours 10 minutes why jump to intervene then?

Probably a bit of both.
I think women seem to like the idea of 121 care, which often doesn't happen in hospital.

If you read the coroners report it basically says she should have been advised to give birth in hospital.
In the months after her death of 34 out of guidelines requests for homebirth 29 had Home birth and 50% of them ended up being transferred to hospital anyway.

Possibly but they need to have some guidelines, some women will be exhausted after pushing for 3 hours.

So babies might also be struggling after 3hrs. I know a baby who was in the birth too long. He survived but never had a healthy life.

Maybe, but couldn't she have chosen to have a home birth with midwives in attendance? I guess she was worried they would end up admitting her...but they'd only do that if it was absolutely necessary!
It is sad, but sorry I think it's also quite selfish. If you're going to have a baby then you need to get over your fear of hospitals/medical staff and do what is safest for both the baby and you. What if your child needed hospital care in the future?