There was an old wives tale that said that babies who are born in their amniotic sac should grow up to be sailors because they would never be able to drown. While we do not place too much credence in such folklore in today’s high tech world, the occasion of such a rare type of birth is so fascinating that we had to share one with you.
An amazing new video has captured this rare type of birth, in which a baby is delivered while still inside an intact amniotic sac, or caul, as it is sometimes referred to. Since it is so rare, we thought you’d get a kick out of it.
In the video, we get to see a caesarian section birth that includes an intact amniotic sac. This occurs rarely, with only about one in eighty thousand vaginal births resulting this unusual way. The baby is perfectly safe, and there is no real danger, but it is peculiar and interesting to see.
Over six and a half million people have watched the video in just the few days since it was posted. However, many expressed concern for the child, based on what their impressions of what they saw.
Reviewing the video, doctor Gino Pecoraro, a leading Brisbane, Australia gynecologist and obstetrician says “I don’t think that you can say the baby is distressed from that clip at all. The bottom line is that while it’s uncommon, it’s only around 10 seconds. You could take much longer to get a baby out during a difficult caesarean so I wouldn’t think that anything that happened here was unsafe.”
He continued to evaluate the procedure saying, “All I could see was that they had made a cut in the uterus and then the sac ballooned out so from all I know the placenta is still attached to the wall of the uterus and the fusion of oxygen and nutrients is still occurring. We know that from looking at babies with the high quality ultrasounds that we have today that they breathe in and out and that’s important to fill their lungs with fluid as it helps their lungs to grow.
“They can making sucking movements, they can put fingers in their mouths. There are cute photos of babies smiling and waving. They can do all manner of facial mechanisms but I wouldn’t say the baby was crying. it was moving its mouth. This is one of those times where things that may appear normal to people who are trained and know what they are looking at look very different to someone who may not know the intricacies of what the inside environment of an abdomen or a uterus looks like.”
Normally, the amniotic sac is broken during the strenuous process of childbirth or is pierced with a scalpel during a caesarean. When the amniotic sac breaks, the fluid held inside is what is described as a woman’s “water breaking.”
Have you ever witnessed childbirth in person? Were there any anomalies or complications? Please share your stories with us here.
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