\n<\/p>\n
D<\/span>uring her time at the helm of a multimillion-dollar organisation linked to baby deaths around the world, Emilee Saldaya has always avowed one thing: she\u2019s never heard of a woman dying after a freebirth.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of a mother dying in childbirth in the sovereign birth world,\u201d the Free Birth Society founder said in a December 2024 appearance on The Way Forward podcast, adding: \u201cIn the sovereign birth world we aren\u2019t losing mothers.\u201d<\/p>\n Ten months after this interview, a 30-year-old nutritionist, wellness influencer and first-time mother, Stacey Warnecke, died from complications of a massive postpartum haemorrhage after a freebirth attended by one of Saldaya\u2019s students and friends, the Melbourne-based unlicensed birth attendant Emily Lal. An inquest heard this month that Warnecke had paid Lal A$6,000 to attend her birth as \u201ca birth keeper\u201d, a term promoted by the Free Birth Society.<\/p>\n In 2025, a year-long Guardian investigation identified 48 cases of late-term stillbirths or neonatal deaths or other forms of serious harm involving mothers or birth attendants who appeared to be linked to FBS. The cases spanned the world, from the US to Canada, Switzerland, France, South Africa, India, Australia and the UK.<\/p>\n Now, for the first time, the Guardian can reveal the full extent of Lal\u2019s ties to FBS. A former insurance industry worker with no medical qualifications, she was personally trained by Saldaya and her business partner, Yolande Norris-Clark, through their Radical Birth Keeper School. In her five years as a birth keeper, Lal would be named in inquests into two deaths, that of Warnecke and of a newborn baby in 2022.<\/p>\n Through Lal, Australia\u2019s most prominent FBS-trained birthkeeper, Saldaya and Norris-Clark would export their extreme, anti-scientific views to a continent thousands of miles away. In so doing, FBS would be connected to what Saldaya had always said she had never heard of in the freebirth world: a maternal death.<\/p>\n B<\/span>efore she entered the birth world, Lal worked for the insurance company QBE. In 2020 she enrolled in FBS\u2019s online programme, which pledged to train a generation of \u201cauthentic midwives\u201d, according to emails seen by the Guardian and the recollections of fellow students and ex-FBS members. They recall Lal waking up at early hours of the morning to dial into calls, along with the handful of other Australian women who enrolled in the course.<\/p>\n <\/span>The Birth Keepers: how the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world \u2013 video<\/span><\/p>\n Through the Radical Birth Keeper School, Saldaya and Norris-Clark claim to have trained 850 RBKs to attend births around the world. Many of these women, like Lal, had no medical experience. They began attending births after completing the course, which is three months long and taught via Zoom. Replete with scientific inaccuracies and dangerous misinformation, the programme has a strong focus on brand-building via social media.<\/p>\n Saldaya and Norris-Clark have taught their students that neonatal resuscitation can be a form of \u201csabotage\u201d, questioned the fact that bacteria causes infection and dismissed life-threatening pregnancy complications as \u201cvariations of normal\u201d. Norris-Clark and Saldaya have also, respectively, questioned the existence of gravity and whether the Earth is round.<\/p>\n double quotation markBirth is as safe as life gets. And if we leave it alone, it unfolds beautifully, [the] majority of the timeEmily Lal, birth keeper<\/p>\n FBS provides some basic advice to trainee RBKs on dealing with emergencies. Experts who have reviewed this advice say it contains inaccurate, misleading and dangerous information. But in podcast interviews recorded before Warnecke died, Lal appeared to suggest that she had the life-saving skills necessary to assist in emergency situations, including a haemorrhage.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there was excessive bleeding,\u201d she said in a 2021 interview on the Matresence podcast, \u201cor something out of the ordinary occurred that we\u2019d consider to be a variation of normal, I\u2019ve got the skills behind me to help the woman to birth her baby if, if she wants my help.\u201d<\/p>\n After completing her training, Lal remained in touch with Saldaya, appearing on the FBS podcast in 2021, when Saldaya described her as a \u201cfriend\u201d. Lal quickly became successful, telling the Positive Birth Australia podcast in 2023 that she attended three to four births a month. \u201cMy book\u2019s full,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She did not appear unduly concerned about the risk of situations she couldn\u2019t manage. On the Matresence podcast, she said there was \u201cno better training than just learning on the job, really.\u201d Her philosophy on birth, Lal said, was that \u201cbirth is as safe as life gets. And if we leave it alone, it unfolds beautifully, [the] majority of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n I<\/span>n court, Lal appeared calm, her voice breaking slightly only when she read from her statement for the coroner, describing her arrival at Warnecke\u2019s home the night she gave birth and finding her client \u201chappy and smiling\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI kissed her on the forehead to greet her,\u201d Lal told the court, before pausing, composing herself and continuing. Having previously refused to give a statement to police after Warnecke\u2019s death, Lal agreed to testify in exchange for a guarantee that her evidence wouldn\u2019t later be used against her.<\/p>\n She told the coroner that she had never claimed to be a health worker. Instead, she said, a birth keeper was \u201cessentially a doula\u201d, a non-medical person who supports a woman during birth.<\/p>\n <\/span>Emily Lal outside the inquest at Melbourne coroner\u2019s court. \u2018There was no way I was gonna call an ambulance against her wishes,\u2019 she told the coroner.<\/span> Composite: AAP\/Guardian design<\/p>\n But Lal had formerly denied being a doula. \u201cLegally,\u201d she said, in her 2021 Matresence appearance, \u201cobviously, we can\u2019t refer to ourselves as midwives. I don\u2019t consider myself to be a doula because I do have the knowledge behind me that if there are complications that arise I can assist.\u201d<\/p>\n The term \u201cradical birth keeper\u201d was invented by Saldaya as a way to help her students skirt laws that ban practising midwifery without a licence.<\/p>\n \u201cTo manoeuvre around these unjust laws,\u201d Saldaya taught FBS students, \u201cI made up the term radical birth keeper \u2026 to be crystal clear, a radical birth keeper is, in practice, [an] authentic midwife.\u201d<\/p>\n She encouraged these \u201cauthentic midwives\u201d not to sign contracts with clients, only to accept gifts after successful births, and to avoid the sort of women who might blame them if something went wrong. \u201cI only ever operate as a non-professional friend,\u201d Norris-Clark said in a 2024 FBS teaching module titled \u201cnavigating birth culture legalities\u201d, advising students against signing contracts, because \u201cyou\u2019re just there at the birth as a friend\u201d.<\/p>\n Giving evidence, Lal used the word \u201cfriend\u201d eight times. \u201cThat\u2019s the agreement that I have with the families that I\u2019m supporting, is if I came to your birth, I\u2019m there as a friend,\u201d she told the inquest.<\/p>\n double quotation markThe idea that any of you would call 911 before the mother says to is like a ludicrous idea. Oh, that makes me want to throw up. That is so horribleEmilee Saldaya, Free Birth Society founder<\/p>\n Services covered by her $6,000 fee \u2013 advertised on her now taken-down website \u2013 included prenatal support, birth planning, education, herbs, tinctures and kits to support pregnancy, labour and birth. Warnecke, Lal said repeatedly, had hired her to be a \u201csupportive friend\u201d.<\/p>\n It also emerged through Lal\u2019s evidence that Warnecke appeared to have engaged with FBS materials. On her birth plan, she had a section entitled \u201cvariations of normal\u201d, the phrase used by FBS to downplay often-serious pregnancy and labour complications. As part of her package, Lal had provided Warnecke with educational materials about them.<\/p>\n Lal told the court Warnecke had probably taken the details for her birth plan from \u201ca couple of different sources\u201d and she had not given her client a template.<\/p>\n When Warnecke became unwell after her son\u2019s birth, Lal appears to have followed her FBS training. A fundamental pillar is the principle that women have the right to refuse medical attention, even if this choice leads to their death or the death of their child. \u201cAutonomy,\u201d Saldaya and Norris-Clark teach their students, \u201cis an essential pillar of authentic midwifery.\u201d<\/p>\n As Warnecke began to bleed out, the inquest heard, Lal asked her twice if she wanted an ambulance. When she said no, Lal did not call one.<\/p>\n Her commitment to this ideological approach was examined by the counsel assisting the coroner, Rachel Ellyard. Lal insisted that she would not call an ambulance against her client\u2019s wishes, even if the woman was unconscious and dying.<\/p>\n \u201cIf she\u2019s like, \u2018I, under no circumstances, do I want you to call an ambulance without my express permission,\u2019 that\u2019s what I will do,\u201d Lal told the court.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if she\u2019s literally unconscious,\u201d replied Ellyard, \u201cand you don\u2019t know whether she wants one or not?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019ve had that conversation with her previously, I\u2019m going to honour her wishes,\u201d Lal said. She explained that \u201cautonomy was very important\u201d to Warnecke: \u201cThere was no way I was gonna call an ambulance against her wishes.\u201d<\/p>\n This is an extreme view promoted by senior FBS leaders. \u201cThe idea that any of you would call 911 before the mother says to is like a ludicrous idea,\u201d Saldaya taught RBK students in 2023, adding: \u201cOh, that makes me want to throw up. That is so horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n double quotation markSomehow it ends up with every media report saying that the baby\u2019s death was my faultEmily Lal<\/p>\n It was only on the third time that Lal asked that Warnecke agreed to having an ambulance called. By then, she\u2019d been bleeding for about half an hour. At Melbourne\u2019s Frankston hospital, staff exhausted their entire supply of Warnecke\u2019s blood type trying to save her and performed a hysterectomy, along with a procedure to drain fluid from her heart, which was experiencing trauma from repeated cardiac arrests and CPR. She died after suffering a further cardiac arrest post-surgery.<\/p>\n Every medical expert who gave evidence at the inquest described her condition \u2013 a huge post-partum haemorrhage \u2013 as treatable and preventable, had Warnecke access to swift medical care.<\/p>\n O<\/span>n the day Warnecke died, a senior doctor at the hospital went to Frankston police station to report his concerns about Lal, something he\u2019d never done before. Giving evidence at the inquest, he explained that the staff who\u2019d tried to save Warnecke\u2019s life were sceptical that Lal really was just her \u201cfriend\u201d because she\u2019d used medical terminology in conversations they witnessed.<\/p>\n When police arrived at Warnecke\u2019s home, they found that Lal had cleaned it so thoroughly they couldn\u2019t even determine the layout of the room she\u2019d given birth in. Lal had even taken home the blood-stained carpet, she told the inquest, so Warnecke\u2019s husband wouldn\u2019t be confronted by the scene, and because it would not fit in their bin.<\/p>\n She refused to make a statement to police, explaining that, as she was not legally required to do so, she chose not to. Ellyard put to her: \u201cYou knew that someone who was your friend had just passed away and you were an eyewitness to some of the events. Why wouldn\u2019t you want to make a statement to describe what you had seen?\u201d<\/p>\n Lal repeated that she had no legal obligation to do so. \u201cI don\u2019t want to over-egg it,\u201d Ellyard continued, \u201cbut if you were present at Stacey\u2019s house as a friend, and you witnessed effectively the events that led to her death, why wouldn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout her evidence, Lal had appeared calm but it was here that she grew agitated. \u201cBecause the last time I did [give a statement to a police],\u201d she said, \u201cit was a birth that had absolutely nothing to do with me, and somehow it ends up with every media report saying that the baby\u2019s death was my fault.\u201d<\/p>\n She was referring to the death of a newborn girl, Baby E, hours after her birth in December 2022. Baby E\u2019s mother is believed to have listened to the Free Birth Society podcast. In an interview with the Australian free birth podcast The Renegade Mama after Baby E\u2019s death, she recalled a comment she believed Yolande Norris-Clark had made on the podcast, citing it as influential in her decision to freebirth.<\/p>\n \u201cShe said, \u2018When you\u2019re sick, what is it that you want? Do you want somebody to nurture you and bring you things \u2026 or do you want to be completely left alone? \u2026 that\u2019s a good indication of how you\u2019re going to be in birth,\u2019\u201d Baby E\u2019s mother recalled.<\/p>\n After reflecting, she decided that \u201cI don\u2019t even want someone to talk to me when I\u2019m sick at all\u201d, so freebirth seemed like the best option for her.<\/p>\n She rented a birth pool from Lal. A 2025 inquest by the coroner\u2019s court of Victoria into Baby E\u2019s death concluded that her cause of death was pneumonia, meconium aspiration and chorioamnionitis, after a prolonged labour in the birthing pool. There is no suggestion that Lal was present at the mother\u2019s birth or the baby\u2019s death; the mother told the inquest she had \u201csought no other service or advice\u201d from Lal.<\/p>\n <\/span>Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris-Clark in a Free Birth Society podcast on YouTube<\/span><\/p>\n Baby E was born about 10.30pm on 28 December 2022. The next morning the mother realised that her baby was not well. The coroner\u2019s court heard evidence that the woman had texted Lal about 8am to say \u201cwe can\u2019t wake her, we aren\u2019t sure if she\u2019s breathing\u201d and sent a photograph of their daughter, whose face was blue, according to a record of a conversation between Lal and a staffer at Mercy hospital for women. According to this record, Lal told the hospital worker that she had not seen the message for 25 minutes, at which point she had FaceTimed the parents, who showed her the baby. She believed her to be dead and told them to call an ambulance.<\/p>\n This version of events broadly correlates with the information she gave police at the home, according to the coronial inquest. Baby E was declared dead at the scene. Police who attended and spoke to the father and Lal determined there were no suspicious circumstances.<\/p>\n But Lal told the inquest she had only spoken to Baby E\u2019s mother to arrange the pool hire and when she visited the home after emergency services arrived, having previously been asked by the mother of Baby E to come and visit her and the baby. In August the coroner Catherine Fitzgerald determined that \u201cthe death of baby E was preventable\u201d. She made no findings against Lal personally.<\/p>\n In a 2023 Positive Birth Australia interview, Lal said Baby E\u2019s death \u201cshook\u201d her and made her recontend with, and ultimately accept, the \u201cpossibility of death\u201d at a time when she was also pregnant. She said she had analysed her choices and decided that freebirth remained, for her, \u201cthe safest option\u201d. Lal continued attending births, taking on Warnecke as a client nearly three years later.<\/p>\n The inquest into Warnecke\u2019s death remains open pending forensic analysis of her phone. It is expected to determine why she chose to reject medical care.<\/p>\n After the death, the Victorian health complaints commissioner suspended Lal from providing or advertising health services while it investigated concerns about her services. That investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n Lal, Saldaya and Norris-Clark did not respond to requests for comment. In response to previous Guardian reporting, Saldaya said in one email that \u201csome of these allegations are false or defamatory\u201d. She has previously responded to criticism by saying she does not care if women freebirth but wants them to have the choice. She has also described past Guardian reporting on the Free Birth Society as \u201cpropaganda\u201d based on \u201clies\u201d. On her Substack in June, Norris-Clark responded to Guardian reporting by stating that \u201cmy supposed crime was \u2018endangering\u2019 others with my ideas, but the real offence was spreading the insurrectionary gospel of self-responsibility, and illustrating (never instructing, never telling, but embodying) the possibility of reclaiming birth outside of the system\u201d.<\/p>\n In her five short years as a birth keeper, Lal would be connected to two avoidable tragedies. It is a future she could never have predicted for herself when she decided to sign up for an online school to explore her passion for birth. Through her, the radical ideology of the Free Birth Society spread through the Australian birth world.<\/p>\n But her birthwork career is now over, with Lal telling the court that after Warnecke\u2019s death she had stopped attending births.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really traumatic watching someone that you love die,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was horrible. I don\u2019t think I would be able to be in a birth space without bringing that in me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During her time at the helm of a multimillion-dollar organisation linked to baby deaths around the world, Emilee Saldaya has always avowed one thing: she\u2019s never heard of a woman dying after a freebirth. \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of a mother dying in childbirth in the sovereign birth world,\u201d the Free Birth Society founder said in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[3758,12230,2649,314,24873,154,7396,5731,24874,24875],"class_list":{"0":"post-50767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-champion","9":"tag-childbirth","10":"tag-claimed","11":"tag-deaths","12":"tag-freebirthing","13":"tag-linked","14":"tag-maternal","15":"tag-movement","16":"tag-stacey","17":"tag-warnecke"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}