The recent and profoundly distressing death of Melbourne nutritionist Stacey Warnecke, who died after giving birth at home without medical assistance, has shaken the medical profession in a way that words can barely capture.
For those of us who have devoted our lives to making childbirth safe, compassionate and dignified, it has forced a reckoning with uncomfortable truths about trust, influence and the erosion of common sense in an age when everyone has a platform yet few have responsibility.
I have worked in places where women in labour have walked for miles beneath a pitiless sun, crossing rivers or scrubland to reach a concrete clinic no larger than a living room. There, they lie on a metal bed beneath a flickering bulb, attended by a single midwife with few supplies but unwavering intent. They come not for comfort nor privacy but for the simplest form of human security, the assurance that if life begins to falter, another pair of hands will be there to help. They know that safety can never be guaranteed, yet they also know the presence of skill increases the chance of survival.
Warnecke, 30, known to her 19,000 followers online as NaturalSpoonfuls, suffered an "unforeseen and extremely rare complication" following the delivery of her first child in a home birth, her husband, Nathan, said in a post on social media. Their newborn son, Axel, survived.