A birthkeeper who allegedly “groomed” pregnant women to fear hospital could be referred to prosecutors to face potential criminal charges, a Victorian coroner has heard. Stacey Warnecke died in September 2025 at Frankston hospital in Melbourne after giving birth at home and suffering a postpartum haemorrhage with birthkeeper Emily Lal by her side, having paid her $6,000 to support her throughout pregnancy. Birthkeepers have no clinical training and operate outside the medical system.
The inquest into Warnecke’s death began in June, but closing submissions to coroner Therese McCarthy were delayed after a forensic analysis of Warnecke’s phone. Hearings resumed on Monday, when Rachel Ellyard, in her role as counsel assisting the coroner, said that the completed analysis had revealed numerous messages, including in a group chat on the platform WhatsApp coordinated by Lal for women who were choosing freebirth. A phone call between Warnecke, a 30-year-old nutritionist and wellness influencer, and Lal was played to the court.
Ellyard said the phone evidence directly contradicted evidence from Lal, given in June, that she was hired by Warnecke primarily to play the role of a supportive friend, and that the money paid to her was primarily for her time, but not for medical advice. Lal responded: “You should be scared of the hospital.” “It’s a terrifying place. For me personally, I think the biggest, the key … to actually staying home and having your baby … is that your mindset and your condition needs to be so solid.” Lal also told Warnecke that midwives who attend home births sometimes inadvertently sabotage them, because if the birth goes on too long, they tell the woman to go to hospital.
This is sometimes just because the midwife is exhausted, Lal said. She told Warnecke: “I manage my own energy as much as I can in that way, so that I don’t subconsciously sabotage a person.” Lal previously told the court that she was not clinically trained, and that it was not her responsibility to make Warnecke’s birth safer, or to call an ambulance unless specifically asked. Lal said she never gave Warnecke medical advice, and only shared her own experiences of freebirthing her own children.
Ellyard said on Monday that given the evidence from the call and many messages and documents obtained from Warnecke’s phone, “the role that Stacey thought Ms Lal would play during the freebirth … was to help her by keeping her safe”. She was providing advice. She was providing referrals.
She was selling supplements. She was offering commentary. It’s something much more structured, much more deliberate.” Ellyard said Warnecke’s husband, Nathan, had also been “reassured or indoctrinated into a sense that his role was just to just sit back and support, and that whatever Stacey experienced was alright”.
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