According to MSN's 9News, a Greek doctor recently photographed and shared an extremely rare moment during childbirth of a baby still enclosed inside the amniotic sac after it had been removed from its mother's body.
Dr. Aris Tsigris published the photo to his Facebook page on March 12 after delivering the newborn during a Cesarean section in Amarousion, north of Athens, Greece. He said the baby did not even realize it had been born yet, as typically the amniotic sac breaks own its own during birth, causing mothers to experience their "water breaking."
The remarkable photo has been shared on Facebook over 8000 times. Dr. Tsigris said the chances of the amniotic sac remaining completely intact after birth are "ultra rare," and he said he was left "breathless" by the sight of it. He added that there was no risk to the baby being born still enclosed in its sac, as the infant was still feeding off of the placenta and began to breathe as soon as the sac was removed.
In 2011, actress Jessica Alba spoke about her daughter Haven being born inside the amniotic sac, according to the Daily Mail.
"The doctor had never seen anything like it before. He grabbed the nurse and said: "Look at this!," the actress said at the time.
"I was in the middle of pushing and he told me to hold on a minute and not to push. He was wearing basketball shorts and a T-shirt and said: 'Oh I have to get my scrubs on for this!' The sac burst on its own after she came out. It was a trip."
An amniotic sac develops only days after a woman conceives, and is filled with fluid which cushions and nourishes the baby while inside the womb. Known as a "caul" birth, being born with an amniotic sac still intact was interpreted as a sign of good luck in medieval times, the Daily Mail reports, and was often presented to the mother as an heirloom. It is also known as a "veiled birth," most commonly occurring in premature babies. Deliveries of caul births are thought to occur in every one in 80,000 births.
