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

She’s under police investigation now I believe

I read some of the press coverage about this tragedy before. How on earth did the "birthkeeper" justify charging 6000 dollars when she was so ignorant about birth that she didn't recognise a post-partum hemorrhage? Blood loss and rapid breathing is textbook symptoms for going into shock, and she should never have reassured Stacey that it was a panic attack.

You really don't need to be a trained midwife for that level of knowledge.

That was just awful - there is a whole series of podcasts plus the article below where women are convinced that they need no medical help when things go wrong and encourage their "birth assistants" not to put anything in writing with the women they advise

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/30/freebirth-wellness-influencer-stacey-warnecke-death-ntwnfb

Horribly tragic and needless death. She was very stupid to do this, but I feel for her. Social media has a lot to answer for. Birthkeepers aside, frankly I think doulas should be banned; they have no medical training and their training is very limited.

@ExtraHotDoubleShot Every woman ultimately has the right to a midwife-supoprted home birth - the midwives have a duty of care whether they agree with your decision or otherwise. I am so sorry you didn't feel supported.

I see from the Guardian piece that Stacey was a ‘wellness influencer’. It would almost be funny if it weren’t so desperately tragic - not to mention reflective of the ignorance and stupidity that abound all over so much social media. (MN excepted, of course.)

Completely agree with this.

I used to be a midwife (and there is a huge list of reasons I chose to no longer be a midwife, sadly) and have thought about becoming a doula numerous times, as I do really miss birth. But I am just not willing to put myself in a situation where I have to collude with women/families who are going against common sense or are being reckless. There is birthing ‘outside of guidelines’ (I myself had a birth centre VBAC without continuous monitoring, and would consider a home VBAC if I had a third baby, for example) and then there is being so anti-medical establishment that you make dangerous choices such as refusing to phone an ambulance when actively bleeding, showing signs of infection, heart rate concerns etc.

Many freebirthers are completely anti hospital, anti vacs and anti any intervention. They can have the nicest, supportive midwifery team and they will still chose to freebirth, believing in 'their feminine energy' and shit.
Natural selection at its rawest.

I've been in hospital a few times with illnesses that endagered my life, it was shit, it was traumatising, it was a really hard thing to go through. If I was ill again would I go back, yeah of course because as shit as it, as traumatising as it was my chances of a good outcome are better when I'm surrounded by medical professionals.

I feel the same way about child birth, yes it can be shit, it can be traumatising but your chances and your babies chances are always going to be better when surrounded by medical professionals.

Somethings are just traumatic, like the lady in the story, if she lost a lot of blood in the hospital no doubt that would be traumatic for her, it's terrifying to find yourself bleeding to death, there isn't much medical professionals can do to make it not traumatising. Bleeding excessively at home or at hospital are both horrific things to happen but at least in hospital you will more than likely live to be traumatised.

It’s no excuse. Especially not when you’re choosing to get pregnant.

Home birth is never safe.

Those two women need to be in bloody prison

That’s a stupid comment.
There are women in third world countries that walk for hours whilst in labour to get to hospitals to hopefully give birth safely for them and their babies.

Sad.

I’ve had two babies and my baby would have died first time and I would have died second time but for the fact we were in a hospital already.

I understand that there are some bad experiences in hospital but to give birth at home with nobody medically trained there is surely FAR more dangerous

The more I think about all this, the more horrifying it is. This woman had probably read so many accounts of doctors and midwives treating labouring women with contempt. There is a big problem with medical misogyny and I won't deny it at all. Women's heart attacks are missed because HCPs put it down to anxiety and tell them it's a panic attack.

But what did opting out of it get her? She had an untrained lay person "supporting her" who probably claimed to give woman-centred support, yet when Stacey demonstrated visible signs of going into shock due to blood loss, the lay person put it down to anxiety and told her it was a panic attack.

I suppose I could’ve insisted by only phoning when I was in labour and refusing to go to hospital. I guess they would’ve had to come to my house. But my medical equipment for the diabetes needs explaining to any caregivers and without any planning, I knew it wouldn’t have been safe. As it turned out they didn’t do any continuous monitoring of either my baby or my medical condition as they didn’t believe I was in labour, so it was futile.

A doula within a hospital setting is really a birth advocate (fine). No unqualified person should be assisting births.

And as patient, if you aren’t eligible for a birthing centre or home-birth, then don’t even think about attempting a free-birth.

Absolutely not true. I had two midwives with me the entire time. I doubt that would have been the case in hospital. I was monitored throughout pregnancy and during the birth and I was ten minutes from a hospital. Statistical outcomes are not worse for a low risk home birth. Please don't conflate this with 'free birth' which is incredibly dangerous.

@FunPartyIdeas “Every woman ultimately has the right to a midwife-supoprted home birth - the midwives have a duty of care whether they agree with your decision or otherwise.”

The night I went into labour, there was no NHS midwife available, so I ended up giving birth at home without one.

I think that's it exactly 2 most dangerous things people can do, be born and give birth.

I think that message needs to be clear. There is nothing safe about giving birth.

And the 10s of thousands of women who end up with ptsd because of poor hospital care have no say???

It’s horrible to read about needless deaths. I personally wouldn’t choose a homebirth but at least with a trained midwife you’d expect them to notice important signs and know when to call an ambulance. It’s madness to pay thousands for someone not qualified.

I dislike the beliefs many fanatics in freebirthing have. They seem to genuinely believe every birth can be without intervention and if there is intervention it’s because the woman didn’t listen to her body in the right way or some such nonsense. Obviously there can be issues with escalating interventions but they have an extreme view.

In a way it’s worse. Most women will be aware of the limitations of home birth but you expect to be safe in hospital so when it doesn’t happen it’s very distressing

Nothing wrong with a natural home birth with an experienced midwife and an ambulance on standby, specifically if you have been monitored and checked during the weeks leading up to it. I had one and it was so much better than my previous hospital birth and can highly recommend, but I would never have had a self managed home birth with no professional support on hand.