Born in the Caul
It is said to be a special blessing to be born in the caul. This means that the amniotic sac doesn't break during the birth and the head is born still covered in the membrane or 'veil'. For the baby to be completely born with the membrane unbroken would be rare indeed, this one broke as he was coming out. Either way it doesn't happen very often, even in natural births. It almost never happens in the hospital because the 'water' is so often broken artificially. Wikipedia says that this only occurs 1 in 80,000 births. Surely they don't mean just a portion of the membrane because I have seen it around 10 times and have been to less than 1000 births. Some say that a child born this way may have special intuitive powers, be destined to be a midwife, have extraordinary luck or never die by drowning. Sailors long ago would buy a piece of the dried membrane to protect them from drowning at sea. In any case, these are some amazing pictures. From the birth to baby in mom's arms is less than one minute.