Video captures rare moment baby born inside amniotic sac

Rare phenomenon is only believed to occur in one in every 80,000 births 

Monday 13 November 2017 13:21 GMT
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Rare video shows baby born inside amniotic sac

Rare footage of a baby being born in the amniotic sac has been posted to social media.

Doctors were filmed performing a Caesarean section, carefully pulling the baby out of the womb, still enclosed in the fluid-filled sac.

For a moments, the baby’s face can be seen pressing against the sac, before one of the doctors breaks it open with her fingers.

It is unclear where and when the footage, which was posted on Facebook, was filmed.

The amniotic sac, sometimes called the “membranes”, is filled with fluid within which an unborn baby develops and grows. It helps cushion the baby from bumps and injury, while also providing them with the fluids they need to breathe and swallow.

The sac starts to form and fill with fluid within days of conception and typically breaks right before labour starts.

This is commonly known as a woman’s waters breaking.

Babies are rarely born en caul, or within the sac. The phenomenon believed to occur in one in 80,000 births.

In August, a woman made headlines around the world after sharing a photo of her own baby born en caul, when she delivered the child in her car 11 weeks early.

 

A post shared by Raelin Scurry (@raeee_nacoal23) on

Raelin Scurry, who was 29 weeks pregnant, thought she was having Braxton Hicks contractions, which typically occur midway through pregnancy.

But after 45 minutes of intense contractions, she decided to head to hospital.

On her way the contractions began to get closer together and she realised that she had gone into labour.

She nonetheless managed to deliver the baby boy, who she named Ean Jamal, still enclosed in its amniotic sac, on her own.

He weighed 3lb 1oz, but survived the ordeal, prompting his mother to call him a “miracle baby”.

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