She Died Giving Birth To Her Son After Her Doula Groomed Her To Be Afraid Of The Hospital

30-year-old Stacey Warnecke was two months away from celebrating her first wedding anniversary with her husband Nathan and excitedly anticipating the birth of her son when tragedy struck.

Just after welcoming her baby into the world, Stacey sadly passed away from complications related to childbirth, and her doula, Emily Lal, might be held responsible for what happened after she allegedly "groomed" Stacey into being afraid of the hospital.

The Coroners Court of Victoria, an organization that independently investigates deaths, is looking into whether or not Stacey would have survived the postpartum hemorrhage that took her life hours if she had received medical intervention sooner.

Stacey chose to have a free birth, meaning she didn't have any midwives or nurses there to assist her. She reportedly paid around $4,200 for her doula to help her, but Emily later told the court that she was "not clinically trained."

According to Emily's husband Nathan, Emily was bleeding after she gave birth to their son Axel, and she lost 1.5 liters of blood 25 minutes afterward.

Stacey bled for more than an hour prior to an ambulance being called for her, and Emily asked her three times if she wanted an ambulance. Stacey declined two times but requested an ambulance the final time Emily brought it up.

10 minutes later, a paramedic got to Stacey's house, where they found her "lying on the floor" with a big clot of blood near her. She was struggling to breathe, and after arriving at the hospital, there was a "big gush of blood" before she went into cardiac arrest.

Stacey needed the whole blood supply at the hospital as doctors rushed to try to save her life and determined she would need a hysterectomy and surgery to drain fluid from her heart. She sadly passed away at 11 a.m.

"A woman who dies from blood loss ...it is eminently treatable if it’s recognized quickly and managed,” Dr. Michael Burke, the forensic pathologist who conducted Stacey's autopsy, said in court while pointing out that it's quite rare for a woman to die of this in a hospital setting.

GoFundMe - pictured above is Stacey

Rachel Ellyard, counsel to the coroner, stated that "Ms. Lal left the hospital and went back to the house to clean up." Rachel additionally noted that in a recorded conversation on Stacey's phone between Stacey and Emily, Emily is heard telling Stacey that it's a "personal failure" and "self-sabotage" to go to a hospital.

At the final hearing into Stacey's death, this 30-minute-long recording was played. Stacey revealed that her husband Nathan was worried about her and the risks associated with a free birth.

In the recording, Emily is heard saying to Stacey that a painful, long labor is the "birth of the woman" and the "death of the maiden." Emily shared that women frequently beg to go to the hospital, but that can be "self-sabotage."

"Your Hon­our might take the view that Ms. Lal saw her role as to groom her cli­ents into being strong enough to res­ist the tempta­tion to seek med­ical help dur­ing labour, to seek pain relief dur­ing labour, to go to hos­pital dur­ing labour, and it’s clear that Ms. Lal thought that in most cases, going to hos­pital would rep­res­ent a per­sonal fail­ure of someone who hadn’t done the work, who hadn’t under­stood enough what the intens­ity of labour was going to be," Rachel continued.

In a statement Nathan made following the loss of Stacey, he said her greatest dream in life was to be a mom.

You can view the GoFundMe to help support Nathan and Axel here.