Inquest into Melbourne influencer’s death following freebirth halted after new phone evidence discovered

Stacey Warnecke and her husband, Nathan Warnecke. Stacey Warnecke died in September in Frankston hospital in Melbourne after a freebirth at home. Photograph: gofundme View image in fullscreen Stacey Warnecke and her husband, Nathan Warnecke. Stacey Warnecke died in September in Frankston hospital in Melbourne after a freebirth at home. Photograph: gofundme Inquest into Melbourne influencer’s death following freebirth halted after new phone evidence discovered Coroner tells inquiry new material ‘of such significance’ any findings must be postponed so information can be analysed Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The closing submissions in an inquest into the death of a woman who gave birth at home with no support from medically trained health workers has been delayed, after new evidence came to light after a forensic analysis of her mobile phone. Stacey Warnecke, a 30 year-old nutritionist, died on 29 September in Frankston hospital in Melbourne . Warnecke, a wellness influencer, had paid birthkeeper Emily Lal $6,000 to support her to give birth at home without any medically trained staff involved, in what is sometimes called a “freebirth”. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Birthkeepers have no medical training and operate outside of the medical system. The court heard Warnecke suffered a massive postpartum haemorrhage after she delivered the placenta, with an ambulance called approximately half an hour after the bleed was first noticed. Warnecke told Lal and her husband, Nathan, that she was short of breath and needed to lie down after the bleed. In her evidence on Tuesday, Lal told the inquest that although she had been paid to support Warnecke, her role was primarily that of a supportive friend, 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. She said she never gave Warnecke medical advice, and only shared her own experiences of freebirthing her own children. Lal also told the inquest that she no longer had access to texts Warnecke sent to her alerting her that she had gone into labour on 26 September, or any texts after that. “I got a new phone and lost everything,” Lal told the court. Counsel assisting the coroner, Rachel Ellyard, asked Lal when she lost her phone, with Lal replying, “October or November, I can’t remember”. Lal added that she then mainly texted Warnecke’s husband, Nathan, before going to their home to support the birth. Birthkeeper hired by woman who died after freebirth tells inquest she was ‘not there to make a birth safer’ Read more Lal gave evidence on the condition that the coroner granted her protection against her answers being used against her in future civil or criminal proceedings. The inquest had been due to close on Friday. On Thursday afternoon, Ellyard told that coroner that the contents of a forensic analysis o