A self-description”birth guard” who are paid to support a Mother in childbirth claimed she had “no obligation” to intervene when complications arose.
Emily Lalwho works as unregistered doula nicknamed The Authentic Birth Keeper, agreed to provide evidence in court on the condition that the evidence could not be used against him in future criminal or civil proceedings.
- A woman known as the “Native Birth Guardian” was questioned about her role in the death of Stacey Warnecke after giving birth at home.
- Warnecke had paid Lal A$6,000, but the unlicensed doula insisted her services did not include medical assistance.
- Lal told the court she was only being paid to act as a “big sister” and had no obligation to call an ambulance.
Lal was paid A$6,000 (approx. US$4,200) by Stacey Warneckean influencer who lost her life in a hospital in Melbourne, Australia, after giving birth at home.
A “birth attendant” stunned a court after explaining why he did not seek medical help for a mother who had paid for his services
Image credit: naturalspoonfuls/Instagram
On Tuesday (June 17), the court was played a 12-minute recording of an emergency call made by Warnecke’s partner, Nathan, in which the mother could be heard struggling to breathe.
When the phone was given to Lal, he told the operator he was Warnecke’s “friend.”
Lal told the court it was not his role to call an ambulance for Warnecke or assess whether the mother’s health was in danger.
Image credit: 9 News Australia
“It will really depend on what the mother wants,” the “birth attendant” said, per news.com.au.
“If he wants support, I will call an ambulance if that’s what he wants. I will wait for him to ask for an ambulance. If he says no, then that’s the answer.”
Emily Lal, an unregistered doula, says she has no obligation to help a mother if complications arise
Image credit: 9 News Australia
Lal was then asked if he thought he had an obligation to seek professional medical help when his mother “couldn’t ask.”
“I don’t think I have any obligations,” he said.
“She is supported by her family. There is always a husband or father. It’s up to the family. It’s not me who makes decisions for them.
“A husband or father can do it. If they want to call an ambulance, I won’t stop them.”
Image credit: naturalspoonfuls/Instagram
Lal said many women choose “free births,” i.e. giving birth at home without a licensed medical professional, because of them value “autonomy” and make their own decisions.
The court noted that Lal charged a fee for his services, indicating that this implied that the mothers were entering a “relationship of dependency” with him.
“No, I don’t think they depend on me,” Lal said.
“The majority of it is just girl-to-girl support. Nothing formal, more just being there for them, listening to them, supporting them in whatever way they want.
Lal testified that he saw himself as a supportive friend and not a medical professional
Image credit: the_authentic_birthkeeper/Instagram
She added, “It’s not really prescriptive. It fills a void. A lot of these women just want to have a woman to support them.”
The former podcaster insists that she is not an “expert” and that her services involve “supporting” mothers as “friends” or “big sisters.”
Sshe stated that she talked about her own experiences in childbirth and that, despite her role as a “birth attendant,” she never misled anyone into believing she was providing medical assistance.
Image credit: naturalspoonfuls/Instagram
To determine what his role as “birth attendant” implies, Rachel Ellyard, counsel assisting Coroner Therese McCarthy, asked Lal whether he would call an ambulance if a mother suffered “significant blood loss.”
“I would ask how he was feeling but no, I would not say ‘I think you lost too much blood’. That’s not my role,” Lal said.
“I don’t know what is too much. I’m not clinically trained. It’s not my role to assess blood loss…I don’t charge a special fee for labor. When I give birth, I’m there as a supportive friend. I’m not there to make labor safer.”
Lal emphasized that it was not his job to check a mother’s pulse despite his role as a “birth attendant”.
Image credit: GoFundMe
He also said he would not check the mother’s pulse if the father was unable to do so.
The “birth keeper” told the court he had lost all text messages exchanged with the Warneck family after changing his phone.
Lal further stated that he cleaned and threw away the blood-stained carpet where Warnecke gave birth because that was what the mother wanted.
Image credit: GoFundMe
Warnecke, 30, died in hospital on September 29 last year due to complications from post-natal bleeding hours after giving birth to her healthy son, Axel.
Paramedics reportedly arrived at his residence ten minutes after the emergency call. Inside the house, they found Warnecke lying on the floor, struggling to breathe, with yellowing skin.
Stacey Warnecke died in a Melbourne hospital from postnatal haemorrhage
Image credit: Frankston Hospital
The 30-year-old woman was rushed to Frankston Hospital. The hospital reportedly ran out of supplies of Warnecke’s blood type, but he could not be saved.
The court heard that an ambulance was called only when Warnecke agreed to it after she started gasping for breath.
“I asked him for an ambulance three times. He started gasping for breath and said he couldn’t breathe,” Lal said.
Image credit: GoFundMe
“Why did you take no for an answer?” Elyard asked.
“I don’t know how many times I need to repeat this. There’s no way I’m calling an ambulance against her wishes.”
Image credit: naturalspoonfuls/Instagram
According to Ellyard, Warnecke chose a “free birth” at home because she had a “deep-seated fear of birth trauma” and was forced to undergo safety interventions that she felt uncomfortable with.
“The only way to have the baby she wanted was to have a free birth,” said counsel assisting the coroner.
Warnecke was reportedly charged $4,200 for Lal’s “maintenance” services
Image credit: naturalspoonfuls/Instagram
Lal had built a large following among mothers before the incident. He charged A$4,000 (US$2,800) for a “complete package” in 2020, raising the price to A$6,000 (US$4,200) three years later.
The woman had previously rented out a birthing pool to a “free birth” mother whose baby died after birth, per Daily Mail.
“It was a birth that had absolutely nothing to do with me, and somehow it ended up in the media saying that the baby’s death was my fault,” she said.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
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