When Raelin Scurry started feeling pains at 29 weeks she wrote them off as Braxton Hicks contractions. As it turns out, they were the real thing – but that wasn’t the mum’s only surprise for the day.
Th US mum has described how she and her husband were on their way to the hospital when they realised the baby was not going to wait and so with just one push she delivered her son herself.
It was only when she looked down that she realised something was different – her son was completely encased in his amniotic sac.
Raelin had experienced what’s called an en-caul birth – a rare occurrence where the baby is born with the amniotic sac completely or partially intact. Normally the sac would break during labour – which is where the term “waters broke” comes in.
As incredible as the sight of her son was, he was still 11 weeks premature and Raelin knew she had to get him medical attention right away.
“The (911) dispatcher told us to pull over. But I knew we would make it to the hospital before they would make it to us. So I told Ean to keep driving,” she wrote in an Instagram post of her son moments after he was born.
“I was so scared… At first the baby was still and all I could do was pray he would be okay.
“And then I rubbed his face with my thumb and he pulled his little hands and feet up to his face as if he understood my prayers and wanted to reassure us he was okay.”
Seven minutes later Raelin and Ean made it to hospital where her son was taken into doctors care.
The couple, who named their son Ean Jamal Vanstory Jr, have since shared several photos of the little boy, who is under medical care, but doing well.
“He’s doing .wonderful all things considered all he went through I know he’s going to be an awesome little man. He is truly a miracle baby,” she wrote.
When en-caul births occur it’s usually during a c-section, but it’s very rare, occurring in less than 1 in 80,000 births.
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