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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Sirin Kale and Melissa Davey

A US champion of ‘freebirthing’ always claimed there had been no maternal deaths linked to the movement. Is Stacey Warnecke the first?

Emily Lal Stacey Warnecke Emilee Saldaya United States FBS Rachel Ellyard Australia Melbourne
Stacey Warnecke smiling into a camera
Nutritionist, wellness influencer and first-time mother Stacey Warnecke died from complications of a massive postpartum haemorrhage after a freebirth. Composite: GoFundMe/Guardian design

During her time at the helm of a multimillion-dollar organisation linked to baby deaths around the world, Emilee Saldaya has always avowed one thing: she’s never heard of a woman dying after a freebirth.

“I’ve never heard of a mother dying in childbirth in the sovereign birth world,” the Free Birth Society founder said in a December 2024 appearance on The Way Forward podcast, adding: “In the sovereign birth world we aren’t losing mothers.”

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