Caul

A caul is a piece of membrane that can cover a newborn's head and face.[1] Birth with a caul is rare, occurring in less than 1 in 80,000 births.[2] The caul is harmless and is immediately removed by the attending parent, physician, or midwife upon birth of the child.[3]

An en-caul birth is different from a caul birth in that the infant is born inside the entire amniotic sac (instead of just a portion of it). The sac balloons out at birth, with the amniotic fluid and child remaining inside the unbroken or partially broken membrane.[3]

  1. ^ "caul". Thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  2. ^ Malik, Rohail; Sarfraz, Adil; Faroqui, Raihan; Onyebeke, William; Wanerman, Jeffrey (30 April 2018). "Extremely Preterm (23 Weeks) Vaginal Cephalic Delivery En Caul and Subsequent Postpartum Intraventricular Hemorrhage and Respiratory Distress: A Teaching Case". Case Reports in Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2018: e5690125. doi:10.1155/2018/5690125. ISSN 2090-6684. PMC 5952438. PMID 29854514.
  3. ^ a b Traci C. Johnson, MD (23 April 2025). "En Caul Birth: What Is It?". WebMD.com. WebMD LLC. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
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