Baby Born Inside Intact Amniotic Sac Captured In Rare Photos

In one in a hundred thousand cases, a baby in the city of Vila Velha, Espirito Santo, Brazil, was born while still inside its amniotic sac.

One of the rarest occurrences took place in the Praia da Costa Hospital in Vila Velha, in January, and was captured by photographer Jana Brasil, who specializes in photos of births. The incredible snaps showed the entire body of the baby boy, named Noah, engulfed in the amniotic sac, after being born by C-section, giving him an alien-like appearance.

“It's indescribable to register that moment. Last year I took photos of babies in the sacs, I have two awards. But nothing like the photo of Noah, it surprised me. I thought I had been through all the emotions, but he pulled a face and did a little pout,” Brasil said, Mail Online reported. The photos garnered thousands of likes after being posted online.

Noah’s birth was an example of what was known as the en-caul birth, which meant that a portion of the amniotic sac or a thin, filmy membrane remained on the child’s head at birth. “An en-caul birth occurs when the baby is born without breaking the amniotic sac, in other words, within a little house which shelters it during gestation,” gynecologist Rafael Angelo Baggieri, who was involved in case, said.

Baggieri added that while such special cases maybe observed in every 80,000 or 100,000 natural births, they almost never happen during C-section births because scalpels used during the surgery, typically tends to puncture the amniotic sac. However, en-caul births never pose any threats to the lives of the baby in question or the mother.

In certain cases, the caul or the membrane would also cover part of the torso, which was harmless, and was simply removed by the doctors after the baby was taken out of the mother’s womb. Careful incisions are made as soon as possible even before the membrane can be completely removed from the baby, to allow the baby to breathe.

The baby, who Baggieri said was “tired” after birth, was still in the hospital and will be discharged from the hospital by the end of this week after making a full recovery.

Monyck Valasco, 34, the mother of the child said the delivery process was very emotional for her and she had no idea that the birth of her son would go viral.

“People all around the world are reposting the photos and looking for us. I saw him being born. They lowered the screen so I could see. I cried a lot. It's an emotion that has no size,” she told reporters.

In ancient times, babies who had en-caul births were believed to possess supernatural abilities and destined for success in life.