En Caul: Video Goes Viral of Baby Born With Amniotic Membrane Intact

en caul

Written by Tori Hamilton, BScN, RN, IBCLC, PMH-C

I am a registered nurse psychotherapist, IBCLC, and mom of four. I have additional trainings in psychotherapy techniques involving Internal Family Systems, Compassionate Inquiry, and Brainspotting. Please check out my other articles and join the email list for additional supports. To book sessions, visit my other website https://attunedtherapy.ca

August 15, 2016

In the following video, you will see a baby born “en caul” – a phenomenon which occurs in less than one out of every 80, 000 births. This video, which in less than one day had reached over 6.8 million people, has allowed practitioners and the general public alike to view something that they likely would not experience within their lifetime.

In the video above you can see an infant within the amniotic sac, the umbilical cord covering its face, and the baby completely unaware of its birth. It gives us a small glimpse of how life truly is for infants in utero, and how calm they are while surrounded by warm amniotic fluid and hugged by a soft elastic membrane.

After watching this, it is no wonder to me why most newborns cry immediately after birth as our cold, hard environment appears to be the exact opposite of what they are used to. As a Registered Nurse, this video is a great reminder that nurses and doctors need to do everything possible to reduce stress on the infant – including practices such as skin-to-skin and delayed cord clamping, as well as reducing noise and cold stress.

What Exactly is an En Caul Birth?

While the caul is a term used to describe the amniotic membrane, an “en caul” birth occurs when the baby is born with the surrounding amniotic membrane completely intact. This means that while the baby has been pushed out of its mother’s womb, it still is within the very environment in which it has survived the past nine months in utero.

A Little History

The first baby to be born en caul was first reported in 1975. According to this article, the baby survived 25 minutes outside of its womb while remaining within the intact amniotic membrane. No negative effects were demonstrated after a follow-up of 3 years [1]. This suggests that while many comments made on this viral video argue that they may have done baby harm by keeping it en caul long enough to film the video, the oxygen stored within the placenta must be able to sustain the baby for at least a short period of time.

New Research Suggests Benefits of Cesarean En Caul Deliveries of Premature Infants

Researchers in Taiwan have found that delivering extremely premature infants en caul via caesarean section can reduce the risk of injury during delivery in these fragile newborns [2]. Delivering extremely premature, high risk infants en caul may prevent bruising and other traumas that they are at increased risk for during both vaginal and cesarean births. This study also suggests that performing an en caul cesarean section may be beneficial to junior doctors with limited experiences with extremely premature infants as it states performing the procedure is quite simple.

This Video Shows Us an Infant’s Reaction When Removed From the Amniotic Sac

Have you seen this video yet? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

[1] Heggarty H, Shenouda D, Grisdale M. Born in a caul. Remarkable survival. Am J Dis Child 1975;129:955.

[2] Chia-Hui Lin, Shin-Yu Lin, Yu-Hsuan Yang, et al. Extremely preterm cesarean delivery “en caul”. Taiwan J Obstet Gynecol 2010;49;3.

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5 Comments

  1. Julie S

    Wow how amazing, especially since it sounds like it can be controlled in a c-section delivery. Great that it has benefits and reduces some risks.

    Reply
  2. Samantha @ Momma Wants Java

    Wow! This is so amazing! I hadn’t seen this video yet, so I’m glad you shared it! That little baby just looked as happy as could be in there. It’s really neat to get a real glimpse of what they look like inside us.

    Reply
  3. Nikki Crump

    This video is like getting a sneak peak inside the womb…amazing.

    Reply
  4. Erin @ Stay at Home Yogi

    So amazing and beautiful! I watched this video multiple times when it started going around on social media! Very interesting to read that this could help with c-section deliveries of preemies.

    Reply
    • TheMamaNurse

      Yes I found that very interesting as well!

      Reply

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