Stacey Warnecke died after choosing a birth free of all medical help. An inquest wants to know why

Stacey Warnecke died in September in Frankston hospital after a ‘freebirth’ at home. She is pictured with her husband, Nathan Warnecke. Photograph: gofundme

As Stacey Warnecke lay on the floor of her home, short of breath after a massive postpartum haemorrhage, the woman she hired as her birthkeeper, Emily Lal, told her she was likely having a panic attack.

“Don’t leave me,” Warnecke said to Lal, who had no medical qualifications, but who Warnecke had paid $6,000 to support her pregnancy, a coroner’s court heard this week.