Womb with a view! Breathtaking images show a baby boy being born while still INSIDE his amniotic sac
- Jacqueline Melo Oliveira said her son looked ‘like a doll coming out of a bubble’
- Normally, the amniotic sac cushioning the baby breaks at the start of labour
Breathtaking pictures have captured a baby boy being born while still inside in his amniotic sac.
Jacqueline Melo Oliveira, 43, from Salvador, Brazil, described her son Bernardo as looking ‘like a doll coming out of a bubble’.
Images taken during his birth show his face squished against the side of the fluid-filled sac.
Normally, the sac, which cushions the baby during their nine-month stint inside the womb, breaks at the start of labour.
When this happens, it’s known as a mother’s ‘waters breaking’.
Jacqueline Melo Oliveira, 43, from Salvador, Brazil, described her son Bernardo as looking ‘like a doll coming out of a bubble’. Images taken during his birth show his face squished against the side of the fluid-filled sac
Speaking about Bernardo’s extraordinary birth, Ms Oliveira told reporters in Brazil: ‘It’s amazing, isn’t it? Perfect.’ She is pictured after giving birth with her partner Darlan Ribeiro and their twins Bernardo and Rafael. Rafael was born normally a minute before Bernardo
One in 80,000 babies are born ‘en caul’, when the protective, jelly-like bubble does not burst. Pictured, Bernardo when he was born
But one in 80,000 babies are born ‘en caul’, when the protective, jelly-like bubble does not burst.
Speaking about Bernardo’s extraordinary birth, Ms Oliveira told reporters in Brazil: ‘It’s amazing, isn’t it? Perfect.
‘It looks like a doll coming out of a bubble.
‘I always saw it on other people’s social networks, but I never imagined it would happen to mine.’
What is an en caul birth?
An en caul birth is when a baby is born with the amniotic sac intact.
The amniotic sac is a jelly like container filled with fluid that helps cushion the baby from bumps and scrapes during pregnancy.
It normally bursts during labour however on very rare occasions it can remain intact.
Estimates put the number of en caul births as one in every 80,000.
It is more common in C-section deliveries where babies are pulled out of the womb via surgery than by vaginal delivery.
The phenomenon is also more common in premature babies as they are smaller with the sac less likely to burst during birth as a result.
After being a born en caul a doctor will carefully break open the sac to release the baby.
Being born en caul is not believed to be dangerous for a baby.
She revealed that she had spent 14 years trying to get pregnant before eventually giving birth to Bernardo and his twin Rafael.
The latter, who weighed nearly 5lbs, was born normally at the Hospital Portuges in Salvador.
Bernardo was born a minute later, weighing roughly 7lbs 7oz.
Jose Carlos Jesus Gaspar, the doctor in charge of delivering him, said there was no dangers.
He added: ‘As long as he was inside the bag, that means he was in the environment he’s been in for the last nine months.
‘There is not a sudden change in the birth process.’
Doctors carefully start to snip away at sac to open it, allowing fluid to filter out — similar to the popping of a water-filled balloon.
Numerous myths and beliefs surround en caul births, which are also called mermaid or veiled births.
One is that babies are somehow destined for greatness or will be lucky in life — with many historical figures said to have been born in this way.
Another bogus belief is that those born en caul can never drown.
The amniotic sac is the jelly-like bag of fluid that encases the foetus. It’s made of two membranes, the amnion and the chorion.
Though thin, it is robust, holding an increasing amount of fluid throughout gestation, including the foetus’s urine.
In an ‘en caul’ birth, the main priority is to break the sac to allow the baby to breathe, since they no longer have oxygen supplied from being inside their mother.
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