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Baby Born In Amniotic Sac: One Twin Baby’s ‘En Caul’ Photos Get 756,000+ Views

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 11:59 PST, Mar 11, 2016

A baby recently born totally enclosed within the mother’s amniotic sac is making the news. It is a rare occasion that babies are born “en caul,” which means the bodies of the newborns are completely within the amniotic sac. This particular baby was a twin, and born at home.

As reported by Buzzfeed in a viral article titled “This Stunning Birth Photo Captured Something That Occurs In Less Than 1 In 80,000 Births,” the baby born inside the amniotic sac is creating a big buzz online. The piece has received more than 756,000 views since being published on March 10 — which means that “en caul” baby has drawn more than three-quarters of a million views in about 24 hours. Though rare, it is generally safe for a baby who is born inside their amniotic sac — where the babies can then be extracted when the sac of fluid is broken open. The babies born inside their amniotic sacs are called “caul bearers,” which is defined as being born inside the “caul” or membrane covering, as “caul” is defined by Merriam-Webster.
“What is a Caul Bearer? A caul bearer is a person who is born with the caul. The caul is also known as the ‘veil,’ the ‘hood,’ the ‘mantle,’ or the ‘veil of tears.'”
The viral photo of the baby was taken by Robin Baker of Birth Blessings Photography. By taking photos of the rare birth event, Baker has gotten plenty of attention for the “en caul” photos — which show the fact that one of the twin babies was born inside the amniotic sac, even if it is a bit difficult to fully discern, since the baby was apparently born underwater. On Facebook, however, on the page of Jasmine Perez, there’s a nifty video of a baby that was born inside the amniotic sac, which shows a lot clearer view of the caul bearer in action. The wonderment of nature caused Jasmine to write “asi como cuando dicen ‘nacio ENMANTILLAO’ bueno… asi!” According to Facebook, that translates into English as the following.

“Like when they say ‘was born enmantillao’ well… Like this!”

As for the photos of the twins that Robin captured, they documented an event that was rare for several reasons. First off, Baker’s photographs told the tale of twin babies born at home. As reported by USA Today, twins are usually delivered in America by C-section — 75 percent of the time. Robin said that the birth of the twins went so fast that the obstetrician and his assistants showed up after the twins arrived.

Robin is based out of California, and described the mom and dad of the twins as a remarkably calm duo in spite of the fact that the doctor hadn’t arrived yet when the twins were born.

“These parents are experienced home birthers as they had their first child at home. They had 30 minutes of bonding time with Baby A before Baby B made his way into his father’s hands still en-caul. We didn’t know the baby would deliver completely en caul until he was crowning. Even then the sac can break…but Baby B’s stayed intact until mom reached down to puncture it with her fingernail. Since so many twins are born in the operating room, this birth was very special!”

The babies that are born inside an amniotic sac — which is basically an enclosure of inhalable fluid that helps nurture and protect the baby during pregnancies — are the stuff of legends. Some of those legends claim that those babies will be great in life because of their birth condition of their moms not experiencing their “water breaking” prior to birth.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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