Pretty amazing--- Baby born in amniotic sac

By now, you might have seen the incredible video circulating online of a baby boy being born in his amniotic sac. —it’s insane.

The video, which was uploaded to Facebook, shows the baby being born fully encased in his amniotic sac, a condition known as “en caul.”

In the video, the baby moves around inside his sac after he was born. A doctor gently wipes the sac and then uses scissors to open it. Then, voila! The baby shoots out and starts crying.

It's kind of amazing, and clearly has fascinated a lot of people—the video has been shared on Facebook more than 66,600 times. You can check it out, it was shared by Jasmine Perez,  (warning: the video is pretty graphic)

But…what is an en caul birth, exactly? While the amniotic sac usually breaks when a woman is in labor (also known as your water breaking), sometimes it stays intact, explains Katherine Pocius, M.D., medical director of family planning.

However, it’s pretty rare. “I’ve seen it once,” says Pocius.

And, while it looks unusual, ob-gyn Pari Ghodsi, M.D., who has also seen this before, says there’s nothing dangerous about it for the baby or mother. But, since the baby can't live in there forever, it needs to be removed.

Worth noting: The amniotic sac is the baby’s home for nine months, it contains the amniotic fluid, which helps protect the baby, strengthens his bones, and helps his lungs grow, while in the womb your baby practices breathing by breathing in and out the water in the amniotic sac. The baby swallows and inhales the amniotic fluid and replaces the volume in the amniotic sac by urinating and exhaling the liquid. So it’s a pretty cozy place for the newborn to be.

The doctor in the video used scissors to remove the sac, but Pocius says you can usually just gently peel it off. “It’s a very flimsy sac,” she says.

En caul births are considered good luck in some cultures and babies born this way are thought to have a lifelong affinity for water. So…congrats!