Coroner Told Birthkeeper Could Face Perjury Referral Over Death of Melbourne Mother

A birthkeeper who allegedly "groomed" pregnant women to fear hospital could be referred to prosecutors and face possible criminal charges, a Victorian coroner has heard.

Stacey Warnecke died in September 2025 at Frankston hospital in Melbourne. She had given birth at home and suffered a postpartum haemorrhage, with birthkeeper Emily Lal at her side. Warnecke had paid Lal $6,000 for support throughout her pregnancy. Birthkeepers have no clinical training and operate outside the medical system.

The inquest into the death began in June, but closing submissions to coroner Therese McCarthy were delayed while Warnecke's phone was forensically analysed. Hearings resumed on Monday. Rachel Ellyard, counsel assisting the coroner, said the completed analysis had uncovered numerous messages, including in a WhatsApp group chat coordinated by Lal for women choosing freebirth. A phone call between Lal and Warnecke, a 30-year-old nutritionist and wellness influencer, was also played to the court.

Ellyard said this material directly contradicted Lal's evidence from June. Lal had told the court that Warnecke hired her mainly as a supportive friend, and that the payment was for her time rather than for medical advice. "Ms Lal saw her role as to groom her clients into being strong enough to resist the temptation to seek medical help during labor, to seek pain relief during labor, to go to hospital during labor," Ellyard said.

In the recorded call, Warnecke said she was afraid of the hospital. Lal replied: "You should be scared of the hospital." She called it "a terrifying place" and said staying home required a mindset and condition that were "so solid". Lal also suggested that midwives attending home births can inadvertently sabotage them by telling a woman to go to hospital when labour runs long, sometimes simply because the midwife is exhausted.

Lal had earlier told the court she was not clinically trained, that it was not her responsibility to make the birth safer, and that she would not call an ambulance unless asked. She said she gave no medical advice and only shared her own experiences of freebirthing her children. Ellyard rejected that picture. "She was providing advice. She was providing referrals. She was selling supplements," she said, calling the arrangement "much more structured, much more deliberate" than that of a friend who "pulls your hair back and wipes your forehead". She added that Warnecke's husband, Nathan, had been "reassured or indoctrinated" into believing his role was simply to sit back and support her.

Lal was invited to return and give further evidence after the phone analysis but declined, the court heard. She had originally testified only after the coroner granted a certificate of protection, which stops that evidence being used against her in future proceedings. Ellyard told the coroner it would be open to her to find Lal was not truthful and to refer her to the Office of Public Prosecutions over the offence of perjury. The office prepares and conducts criminal matters on behalf of the director.

The court previously heard that Lal asked Warnecke three times whether she wanted an ambulance after she delivered the placenta, lost up to 1.5 litres of blood and began struggling to breathe. Warnecke agreed the third time, but was seriously unwell by the time paramedics arrived. She died in hospital several hours later, after the hospital exhausted its blood supply trying to save her. Lal earlier said it was not her role to call an ambulance against a client's wishes, even if the woman was unconscious and dying.

"Stacey would have survived if she was in hospital," Ellyard said, noting that postpartum haemorrhage is the most common complication of childbirth and that in well-resourced countries women do not die from it in hospital. Drawing on earlier medical evidence, she said Warnecke would also have survived a home birth with a registered midwife. "She suffered a known complication of childbirth, which was eminently treatable if identified and responded to immediately." The coroner will deliver her findings at a later date.