As a Birth Photographer, I see a lot of different births. From home births, hospital births, by the book births, quick births, drawn out births, to even rare births, such as an En Caul Birth. Labor and birth is so different not only from woman to woman but even from birth to birth for the same woman. The act of creating and bringing new life into this world is something truly incredible.

Today we are going to talk about a rare event in birth, this is when the baby is born “En Caul” which just means the baby is born in the amniotic sac. According to the National Library of Medicine, En Caul births are less common than 1 in 80,000 live births. A myth associated with babies born in their amniotic sac is that they can never drown at any point in their life, unfortunately this is just a myth. Another superstition with En Caul birth is that babies born in the caul are destined for greatness and it is a sign of good luck for both baby and the parents.

To back up a little bit, what is the amniotic sac? The amniotic sac is what encloses your baby while they reside in your womb. The amniotic sac is filled with a liquid called amniotic fluid or also referred to as “waters”. In a less rare case, when a mother goes into labor, at some point during the labor, their “water breaks”. Sometimes this is the start of labor, or it can happen any time during the laboring process. Personally for me, I was laboring for almost 24 hours before my water broke (and my amniotic sac literally flew out of me as I stood up). Water breaking can also look like a slow leak over the course of labor, or a break, and then gush of water like you see in the movies.

But what about the >1 in 80,000?

As with all scenarios, rarities happen. Although rare, being born in the amniotic sac has not proven to have any health risks to the baby. Honestly, although really cool, and interesting, all that needs to take place when a baby is born in the caul is your Midwife or OB just needs to pinch the sac open with scissors or their fingers to “break the waters” and release the baby from the sac. For an experienced professional, it happens in a matter of seconds and doesn’t take a second thought and your baby can get brought up to you like nothing was out of the ordinary.

This was the case in a birth I photographed this year. It was incredible to witness for the first time. Mom was having a home birth and had been laboring very efficiently. When her midwife showed up she was just about ready to push her sweet baby out. As mom got on the edge of her bed on all fours, and her midwife behind her ready to catch the newest addition to her family, I quickly jumped in between her midwifes legs to get a good shot of baby being born. As I get into that position I noticed something that I had never seen before. It looked like her baby was enclosed in a bubble, all of the baby’s vernix was floating around his still in tact bubble and both the midwife and I described it as looking at a snow globe.

With quick action from the incredible midwife, the sac was broken (and in this case, the umbilical cord was unwrapped from baby’s neck and body) and the sweet boy was ready to be handed to his momma.

With permission from mom I’ve attached images from her En Caul Birth

The Best Part…

I may be a little biased but the best part in my opinion is that this rare birth was completely documented. Mom had no idea that her baby was born En Caul until her midwife told her, but whats even better is because mom had me there to document her birth, she got to see this 1 in 80,000 scenario with her own eyes. To be able to document rarities like this and then educate about them is nothing short of incredible and its all thanks to moms breaking norms and “taboos” and welcoming a photographer into their space to document the incredible event of childbirth, rare or not.

To see what the world of birth photography looks like, head over to WombtoWorldphotography.com and you can learn the heart and soul behind the camera, view birth galleries and inquire about birth photography!