Hospital exhausted blood supply in attempt to save wellness influencer after freebirth

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A major Melbourne hospital exhausted its entire supply of Stacey Warnecke’s blood type in a desperate bid to save the wellness influencer after she suffered catastrophic bleeding following a free birth.

Warnecke, 30, is believed to have died from complications of a postpartum haemorrhage after giving birth to her son, Axel, in a water bath at her Seaford home on September 29, the Coroner’s Court heard on Wednesday.

Stacey Warnecke died in September after giving birth at home.

Emily Lal, a doula now banned by the Health Department from giving pregnant women birth advice, attended Warnecke’s home birth as well as Frankston Hospital when the new mother was rushed there.

The court heard that after Warnecke died, Lal, known online as “The Authentic Birthkeeper”, refused to provide a statement to police.

When police visited Warnecke’s house the day after her death to photograph the scene, they discovered that the home in Melbourne’s south-east had been extensively cleaned. They were informed that Lal had done this cleaning.

At a directions hearing, counsel assisting the coroner Rachel Ellyard said the young mother appeared initially well after giving birth at 3am but rapidly deteriorated after she passed the placenta and began to lose large amounts of blood.

“She lay down, she asked for pillows and was having trouble breathing,” she said.

Stacey was asked if she wanted an ambulance, but she refused.

“She complained of more blood loss,” Ellyard said.

The next time she was asked if she wanted an ambulance, Warnecke agreed.

The first paramedic, who arrived at the house at 4.26am, found Warnecke lying on the floor next to the birthing pool in a small, dark room.

“Stacey was agitated. She appeared yellow and short of breath,” Ellyard told the directions hearing.

Warnecke was transported by ambulance to Frankston Hospital at 5am, accompanied by her husband, Lal and their newborn son.

A total of 24 clinicians mounted an extensive effort to save Warnecke over the next six hours, inserting a battery balloon to stem the bleeding, performing an emergency hysterectomy and a procedure to remove a large amount of fluid that had gathered in a sac around her heart.

Nutrition influencer Stacey Warnecke died in September.

She was intubated, given CPR and blood transfusions, then suffered several cardiac arrests in the intensive care unit before passing away.

“As a measure of how severe her presentation was, and how hard clinicians worked to save her, the hospital’s supply of her blood type was completely exhausted,” said Ellyard.

“It must have been a profoundly complicated and distressing experience for all those trying to care for her.”

In October, Victoria’s Health Complaints Commission issued a public warning about Lal and said she was under investigation after allegations were made that Lal “is facilitating and/or participating in homebirths which may put both mothers and babies at risk”.

More to come.

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