Police are examining the circumstances surrounding the death of Pala Negara’s newborn son.
The Ex on the Beach alum and her fiancé, Chris Hunter, welcomed Harmony Hunter on Aug. 28, almost three weeks after the baby’s due date.
Labor initially began as a planned home birth. However, after complications developed, Negara was taken to Lismore Hospital in New South Wales, Australia, before being transferred to Gold Coast University Hospital in Queensland. Harmony died there after 16 hours, Negara told the Daily Mail in an interview published Oct. 27.
“My body feels broken and aches for our baby, the life we grew together,” Negara wrote in a September Instagram post. “I don’t think we will ever know how to move through this heartbreak.”
Authorities are now investigating the events that led to Harmony’s death.
“Police were notified after the baby was born in the state’s north, about 4.30am on Friday 28 August 2026, and subsequently died at a Gold Coast Hospital later that day,” a spokesperson for the New South Wales Police Force told . “A report will be prepared for the information of the coroner.”
Before the birth, Negara had joined a home birth program operated through Byron Central Hospital, which also oversaw her prenatal care.
“We did everything right,” Negara told the Daily Mail. “We were under the Medicare system and I had my 41-week scan and everything was fine.”
But after she reached 41 weeks and six days, Negara said she received a text informing her that the program’s care was ending “because of its gestational limit.”
Seven days later, on Aug. 28, Negara went into labor.
“I understand a rare silent placental abruption occurred during delivery and was identified only afterwards,” Negara told the Daily Mail. “Paramedics were called and, to my recollection, arrived approximately 40 minutes later.”
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Negara said Harmony lived for 16 hours before dying at Gold Coast University Hospital. She added that the Queensland coroner’s autopsy attributed the death to hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy, or HIE.
HIE is a severe form of brain injury that can occur in infants following a difficult birth.
“Alongside our devastating grief,” Negara told the outlet, “I am receiving counseling and recovering from postpartum hemorrhage.”
Negara told news.com.au that she believes her family was “left stranded” by a medical system that “broke its promise,” leaving them to “handle the fallout alone.”
“Going into unexpected spontaneous labor on my own… [is] something no mother or father should ever have to endure,” Negara said. “Pregnancy is the most vulnerable time for a woman. A mother cannot transfer her own clinical file, nor should she ever have to guess how to navigate hospital maternity escalation while 42 weeks pregnant.”
A spokesperson for Northern NSW Local Health District, which oversees Byron Central Hospital, offered condolences to Negara and her family.
“We have cooperated fully with the Queensland Coroner and have responded to their requests for information,” the spokesperson told news.com.au. “As this matter is still being investigated, we are unable to comment further.”
Negara later shared details of Harmony’s planned burial on Instagram.
“We will soon lay our angel to rest on Bundjalung Country where he was born, the land that has held my family and continues to hold our family,” she wrote in a September post. “We know you will return to us again old soul, we can feel you surrounding us, our Angel.”
Spokespeople for Negara, Byron Central Hospital and the Queensland Coroner’s Court did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Oxygen.