Caul

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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.[ citation needed ]

Contents

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.[ citation needed ]

Types

The amniotic sac from an en caul birth. Amniotic sac.jpg
The amniotic sac from an en caul birth.

A child 'born with the caul' has a portion of a birth membrane remaining on the head. There are two types of caul membranes,[ clarification needed ] and such cauls can appear in four ways.[ clarification needed ][ citation needed ]

The most common caul type is a piece of the thin translucent inner lining of the amnion that breaks away and forms tightly against the head during birth. [3] Such a caul typically clings to the head and face but on rarer occasions drapes over the head and partly down the torso.[ citation needed ]

Removal

The caul is harmless and is immediately removed by the attending parent, physician, or midwife upon birth of the child. If the membrane is of the amniotic tissue, it is removed by easily slipping it away from the child's skin. The removal of the thicker membrane is more complex. If done correctly, the attending practitioner will make a small incision in the membrane across the nostrils so that the child can breathe. The loops are then carefully removed from behind the ears. The remainder of the caul is then either peeled back very carefully from the skin or else gently rubbed with a sheet of paper, which is then peeled away. If removed too quickly, the caul can leave wounds on the infant's flesh at the attachment points, which might leave permanent scars. [3]

Epidemiology

Birth with a caul is rare, occurring in fewer than 1 in 80,000 births. This statistic includes en-caul births, which occur more frequently than authentic caul births; therefore, authentic caul births are even more rare than indicated by the raw statistic.Most en-caul births are premature. [4] [ better source needed ]

Folk traditions

According to Aelius Lampridius, the boy-emperor Diadumenian (208–218) was so named because he was born with a diadem formed by a rolled caul.[ citation needed ]

In medieval times, the appearance of a caul on a newborn baby was seen as a sign of good luck. [5] It was considered an omen that the child was destined for greatness. Gathering the caul onto paper was considered an important tradition of childbirth: the midwife would rub a sheet of paper across the baby's head and face, pressing the material of the caul onto the paper. The caul would then be presented to the mother, to be kept as an heirloom. Some Early Modern European traditions linked caul birth to the ability to defend fertility and the harvest against the forces of evil, particularly witches and sorcerers. [lower-alpha 1]

Folklore developed suggesting that possession of a baby's caul would bring its bearer good luck and protect that person from death by drowning. Cauls were therefore highly prized by sailors. Medieval women often sold them to sailors for large sums of money; a caul was regarded as a valuable talisman. [7]

In Polish the idiom w czepku urodzony/a ('born in a bonnet'), in Italian nato/a con la camicia ('born with a shirt') and in French né(e) coiffé(e) ('born with a hat on') all describe a person who is always very lucky.[ citation needed ]

The Russian phrase родился в рубашке (rodilsya v rubashke, literally 'born in a shirt') refers to caul birth and means 'born lucky'. It is often applied to someone who is oblivious to an impending disaster that is avoided only through luck, as if the birth caul persists as supernatural armor, and in this sense commonly appears in titles or descriptions of Russian dashcam videos.[ citation needed ]

Not all cultural beliefs about cauls are positive. In Romanian folklore babies born with a caul are said to become strigoi upon death. [8] [9] It was also believed that "he who is born to be hanged will never drown" - that anyone born with a caul was destined to leave the world in a hangman's hood in place of the caul with which they were born. The belief in cauls as omens persisted well into the 20th century. [10]

The 16th-century Dutch physician Levinus Lemnius, author of The Secret Miracles of Nature, remained skeptical of superstitious claims about preserved cauls. Comic writer Thomas Hood even ended his poem "The Sea-Spell" with a lament about a drowning sailor's futile reliance on a protection charm: [10]

Heaven never heard his cry,
Nor did the ocean heed his caul.

Notable people born "in the caul"

In the classic 1850 novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, the title character and novel narrator describes his own birth: "I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas." Copperfield goes on to describe the fate of his caul, which was re-sold and raffled over the subsequent decade as a talisman believed to protect its owner from death by drowning. [27]

In the novel Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, Theophilus Hopkins, father of the hero, Oscar, gives to his son a little box, inside which there is "a caul, the little membrane that had covered Oscar's head at birth and it had been kept, his mother had kept it, because it was said – superstitiously, of course – that such a thing would protect the child from drowning". [28]

An en caul birth is depicted in the episode "Heavy Hangs the Head" (S03E01) of the Apple TV+ science fiction series See . [29]

Other depictions include:

Notes

  1. The story of these so-called benandanti is recounted in Carlo Ginzburg's 1983 study. [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>David Copperfield</i> 1849–1850 novel by Charles Dickens

David Copperfield is a novel by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from infancy to maturity. As such, it is typically categorized in the bildungsroman genre. It was published as a serial in 1849 and 1850 and then as a book in 1850.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birth</span> Process of bearing offspring

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The amniotic sac, also called the bag of waters or the membranes, is the sac in which the embryo and later fetus develops in amniotes. It is a thin but tough transparent pair of membranes that hold a developing embryo until shortly before birth. The inner of these membranes, the amnion, encloses the amniotic cavity, containing the amniotic fluid and the embryo. The outer membrane, the chorion, contains the amnion and is part of the placenta. On the outer side, the amniotic sac is connected to the yolk sac, the allantois, and via the umbilical cord, the placenta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Changeling</span> Creature in European folklore

A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found throughout much of European folklore. A changeling was a substitute left by a supernatural being when kidnapping a human being. Sometimes the changeling was a 'stock', more often the changeling was a supernatural being made magically to look like the kidnapped human. Supernatural beings blamed for stealing children included fairies, demons, trolls, nereids and many others. Usually, the kidnapped human was a child; but there were cases, particularly in Scandinavia and Ireland, where adults were taken.

Oligohydramnios is a medical condition in pregnancy characterized by a deficiency of amniotic fluid, the fluid that surrounds the fetus in the abdomen, in the amniotic sac. The limiting case is anhydramnios, where there is a complete absence of amniotic fluid. It is typically diagnosed by ultrasound when the amniotic fluid index (AFI) measures less than 5 cm or when the single deepest pocket (SDP) of amniotic fluid measures less than 2 cm. Amniotic fluid is necessary to allow for normal fetal movement, lung development, and cushioning from uterine compression. Low amniotic fluid can be attributed to a maternal, fetal, placental or idiopathic cause and can result in poor fetal outcomes including death. The prognosis of the fetus is dependent on the etiology, gestational age at diagnosis, and the severity of the oligohydramnios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amniotic fluid</span> Fluid surrounding a fetus within the amnion

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Artificial rupture of membranes (AROM), also known as an amniotomy, is performed by a midwife or obstetrician and was once thought to be an effective means to induce or accelerate labor. The membranes can be ruptured using a specialized tool, such as an amnihook or amnicot, or they may be ruptured by the proceduralist's finger. The different techniques for artificial rupture of membranes have not been extensively compared in the literature. In one study comparing amnihook versus amnicot for artificial rupture of membranes, use of an amnicot was associated with fewer neonatal scalp lacerations.

Childbirth in ancient Rome was dangerous for both the mother and the child. Mothers usually would rely on religious superstition to avoid death. Certain customs such as lying in bed after childbirth and using plants and herbs as relief were also practiced. Midwives assisted the mothers in birth. Once children were born they wouldn’t be given a name until 8 or 9 days after their birth. The number depended on if they were male or female. Once the days had passed, the child would be given a name and a bulla during a ceremony. When a child reached the age of 1, they would gain legal privileges which could lead to citizenship. Children 7 and under were considered infants, and were under the care of women. From a age 8 until they reached adulthood children were expected to help with housework. The age of adulthood was 12 for girls, or 14 for boys. Children would often have a variety of toys to play with. If a child died they could be buried or cremated. Some would be commemorated in Roman religious tradition.

References

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Further reading