A rare "mermaid birth" has taken place for baby Rio Petrie Martins on Thursday, December 16, surprising the midwives who attended to his mother, Jennifer Petrie, who never felt her water break while she was in labor.
Petrie, from Southport in the U.K., was shocked to see Rio coming out of her while he was still inside his "water balloon." His intact amniotic sac was only broken when the midwives picked him up for cleaning.
The mother said that she didn't feel any gush of fluid that's supposed to happen during the labor. Her partner, Theo Martins, learned from the midwives that the chances of a mermaid birth happen in about one in 100,000 babies. The pair regarded this magical moment as a sign of good luck.
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What is a Mermaid Birth?
According to WebMD, a mermaid birth is also known as an en caul birth, a rare instance where the baby remains inside an unbroken amniotic sac. This sac is what holds the fetus inside the womb to protect it from any injuries and regulate the womb's temperature during the pregnancy. The sac also provides air to the fetus through the attached umbilical cord on their belly button, where the oxygen flows through the blood.
As the fetus develops, the sac also grows. During labor, the amniotic sac will usually burst on its own, signaling that the baby is ready to come out, except for en caul births. In this instance, the doctor will have to carefully snip and tear the sac open to hear the baby's first cries.
An en caul birth is said to give more protection for babies who could likely bruise during the mother's contraction or could be stuck in the cervix if it's not completely dilated. En caul birth also happens in a cesarean delivery, where the baby could feel less pressure-related trauma during the procedure.
There are, however, risks to en caul births like respiratory distress, sepsis or hemorrhage. In C-section deliveries, the baby might incur neonatal anemia. Since mermaid births are quite rare, studies about its risk factors are also not widely available and poorly understood by the experts, per the Obstetrics and Gynecology journal.
Superstitions About Mermaid Birth
Ancient superstitions in places like England, Denmark and Iceland regard mermaid births as a holy miracle. In the 1800s, doctors believe that it's divine intervention and that babies born with their sac intact, who are also known as caulbearers, will never drown in water but this has never been scientifically proven.
Stories also abound that some mothers don't throw the sac away because they believe that the baby will lose their immunity from drowning if they did. Some families, however, profit from the baby's caul by selling this to sailors for their protection.
In modern times, caulbearers are regarded as lucky babies who will grow up to make a difference in the world. There are unconfirmed beliefs that some of the genius minds in human history were products of mermaid births.
