Ex on the Beach Star Explains Why She Refused Help During 60-Hour Labour

Former reality television personality Pala Negara had previously spoken about her unease with hospitals and described declining medical assistance during a difficult labour that lasted around 60 hours with one of her older children. Her comments have resurfaced after the death of her newborn son, who died hours after being delivered at home.

The 38-year-old Balinese model welcomed Harmony Hunter at her home in northern New South Wales on August 28, 20 days after his expected due date of August 8.

The planned home birth ended in tragedy when complications developed, prompting emergency crews to take both Ms Negara and her baby to Lismore Hospital. They were later flown across the state border aboard a NeoRESQ helicopter to Gold Coast University Hospital.

Medical teams fought to save Harmony, but the infant died at 8pm that night.

NSW Police are examining the circumstances of the baby’s death. Officers from the Tweed and Byron Police Districts are compiling a report for the coroner.

The police investigation does not indicate that Ms Negara is considered responsible for her son’s death.

Ms Negara and her partner, Byron Bay hairdresser Chris Hunter, publicly shared news of Harmony’s death in a social media post in September.

The Daily Mail has now reported details from a podcast interview recorded earlier, in which Ms Negara discussed why she had rejected hospital births and said she trusted her body even during an approximately 60-hour labour with one of her older children.

She also said her first home birth resulted in a haemorrhage and required her to be admitted to hospital several days later.

During the 2023 interview, Ms Negara reflected on the births of her older children, Tiger Lily, now eight, and Taj, six. She explained that her concerns about hospital care had influenced her decision to give birth at home.

She recalled visiting a number of private hospitals and said one repeated feature stood out during those tours.

According to Ms Negara, she repeatedly heard announcements for a “code blue”.

She said she understood the alerts to involve newborn babies who were not breathing, required resuscitation or needed help from breathing machines.

Ms Negara said hearing what she believed were about five such announcements at each hospital left her alarmed.

She later came to believe that hospital births involved a greater number of medical interventions.

She also said hospital protocols could lead to babies being placed on breathing machines.

Ms Negara said she had heard approximately five code-blue announcements during each hospital visit, an experience she described as deeply troubling.

‘I think that was a little bit too much of a coincidence for me,’ she said.

Ms Negara also explained that during her first pregnancy eight years ago, doctors warned her about possible complications.

‘At 28 weeks, they told me that Tiger Lily was most likely going to die,’ she said.

‘They said that was from a termination I had at 21. I had scar tissue. That in itself was very wrong.

‘I had a lot of haemorrhaging after that and it was done by a professional place; however, there was an anaesthetist that later went to jail.

‘It was a huge, huge thing in the media that he was giving women HIV. The whole thing was a disaster.’

The Daily Mail cannot find reports of an Australian anaesthetist jailed for giving women HIV.

However, drug-addicted former anaesthetist James Peters was sentenced in 2013 to 14 years’ jail after infecting 55 women with hepatitis C while working at a Melbourne abortion clinic. It is possible this is what Ms Negara was referring to.

‘Any woman who has been pregnant for 28 weeks would know that’s a long time,’ Ms Negara added.

‘You feel the baby moving – the baby is quite big – and so I said I’d rather risk it and if my baby is going to die, then that was my journey.’

But four weeks after the warning about Tiger Lily, Ms Negara claimed hospital staff admitted they had made a mistake about her child’s chances of survival and apologised.

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‘The doctor said that they are really sorry on behalf of the hospital. They wanted to issue me with an apology because they made a mistake,’ she said.

The experience left her questioning what might have happened had she acted on the original warning.

‘I just think my heart just sank for all of the women who maybe listened, if that ever happened to them, and then their whole lives have been changed forever,’ she said.

It was then, she recalled, that she decided she no longer wanted to give birth in hospital.

‘Basically, I went to my partner and I said, “That’s it”,’ she said. ‘And I told him and he said, “We can do this ourselves”.’

Ms Negara said her partner initially favoured a hospital birth but changed his mind.

Together, they found a home-birth midwife in Melbourne’s Bayside region, who Ms Negara said remained a close friend.

Her first daughter, Tiger Lily, was born at home following a labour she said lasted more than 40 hours.

She said her midwife missed the delivery because the baby arrived before she could get there.

The birth was followed by complications.

‘I think I pushed the placenta too early, and a little bit of bleeding. So I ended up having to go to hospital a few days later with a haemorrhage,’ she said.

Despite that experience, Ms Negara chose another home birth when she became pregnant with her son, Taj.

This time, she said, the labour lasted approximately 60 hours.

‘Anyone who is a nurse or a doctor will say that you have to go to hospital and that would be considered a caesarean,’ she said.

‘And I knew that, and I didn’t want to go to hospital because I knew that I was capable of giving birth, and I know that I trust my body.

‘I know that all babies take their own individual time. It’s like all of our bodies are different. There’s no time for every person.

‘So I just trusted I could feel him moving, and it was very hard. I was screaming.’

She described the experience as a personal journey of empowerment.

Speaking to the Mail by phone on Tuesday about Harmony’s death, Ms Negara said she was registered with a local home birth program provided through Byron Central Hospital.

She claimed that she felt ‘really let down with what happened with Harmony’, adding: ‘We did everything right, we were under the Medicare system and I had my 41-week scan and everything was fine.’

In further correspondence by email, Ms Negara claimed that ‘at 41 weeks and six days, I was advised by text that care through the program would end because of its gestational limit’.

Ms Negara said Harmony was later born on August 28 after she went into spontaneous labour in the early hours.

‘I understand a rare silent placental abruption occurred during delivery and was identified only afterwards. Paramedics were called and, to my recollection, arrived approximately 40 minutes later.

‘Harmony survived for 16 hours and passed away at Gold Coast University Hospital, with the Queensland coroner’s autopsy findings stating cause of death due to hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE).’

HIE is a brain injury caused by reduced oxygen (hypoxia) and restricted blood flow (ischaemia) to a newborn’s brain before, during or shortly after birth.

‘Alongside our devastating grief, I am receiving counselling and recovering from postpartum haemorrhage,’ Ms Negara added.

‘Harmony was deeply wanted and loved.

‘He was the bridging of mine and Chris’s families (from our previous relationships in which we each have two children) into one and our family deserves compassion and privacy. This was supposed to be our happy ending.’

Ms Negara appeared on the reality series Ex on the Beach: Couples in 2023. 

Represented by GIANT Model Management, she has appeared in campaigns for Myer alongside Jennifer Hawkins, Carla Zampatti and Nude by Nature.