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Baby born in amniotic sac becomes newborn viral star

Silas Johnson was born en caul, completely encased in his amniotic sac, at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

By Ben Hooper
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LOS ANGELES, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A Los Angeles baby became one of the world's youngest social media celebrities when a picture of him still in his amniotic sac after birth went viral.

Silas Johnson was born three months premature via Caesarean section Dec. 6 and a doctor at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center snapped a photo of the infant completely encased in the amniotic sac following the procedure.

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"Even though it's a cliche -- we caught our breath," neonatologist William Binder told KCAL-TV. "It really felt like a moment of awe."

Doctors said the amniotic sac normally breaks during labor, creating the event referred to as "breaking water," and the sac is usually punctured during a C-section.

Occasionally a portion of the sac sticks to the baby during birth, which is known as being born "en caul," or with a "birth caul."

The hospital said only 1 in every 80,000 births involves a child being born en caul.

"It was definitely like a clear film where you could definitely make out his head and his hair. He was kind of in a fetal position, and you could see like his arms and his legs curled up," mother Chelsea Philips said. "It was actually really cool to see."

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Dr. Amos Grunebaum, director of obstetrics at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, said birth cauls have a storied history.

"There are a lot of myths surrounding en caul births," Grunebaum told Time. "There are many, many difference sources in the literature where people think the person delivered that way has certain powers."

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