Caul#Types

{{see also|Childbirth}}

{{stack|File:Amniotic sac.jpg}}

A child 'born with the caul' has a portion of a birth membrane remaining on the head. There are two types of caul membranes,{{cite web |last1=Ray |first1=Michael |title=Caul |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/caul |website=Britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=5 June 2025 |date=10 October 2016}} the first type of membrane is the inner layer called the amnion which is the amniotic sac that contains the fetus and the amniotic fluid;{{cite web |last1=Aakanksha |first1=Gaur |last2=Rodriguez |first2=Emily |title=Amnion |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/amnion |website=Britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=5 June 2025 |date=16 November 2018}} the second membrane is the chorion and is the outermost membrane around the fetus, it contains a complex series of blood vessels that are connected to the endometrium, which together with the chorion forms the placenta, the primary organ responsible for supplying the fetus with oxygen, nutrients and extracting waste.{{cite web |title=Chorion |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/chorion |website=Britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=5 June 2025 |date=20 July 1998}}

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.{{cite journal |last1=Forbes |first1=Thomas R. |title=The Social History of the Caul |journal=The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine |issn=0044-0086 |date=June 1953 |volume=25 |issue=6 |pages=495–508 |pmid=13078640 |pmc=2599448}} [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2599448/pdf/yjbm00328-0063.pdf Direct PDF link]. Such a caul typically clings to the head and face but on rarer occasions drapes over the head and partly down the torso.

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.

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.{{cite journal |last1=Malik |first1=Rohail |last2=Sarfraz |first2=Adil |last3=Faroqui |first3=Raihan |last4=Onyebeke |first4=William |last5=Wanerman |first5=Jeffrey |title=Extremely Preterm (23 Weeks) Vaginal Cephalic Delivery En Caul and Subsequent Postpartum Intraventricular Hemorrhage and Respiratory Distress: A Teaching Case |journal=Case Reports in Obstetrics and Gynecology |date=2018 |volume=2018 |pages=1–3 |doi=10.1155/2018/5690125 |doi-access=free |pmid=29854514 |pmc=5952438}} Recent research has shown that surgical techniques during cesarean deliveries of severely premature infants that focus on delivering the infant with the caul intact can potentially increase the baby's chances of survival, as it protects the underdeveloped fetus from being harmed by the muscle contractions of the uterus, and from the doctors and nurses accidentally harming the fetus while removing it from the uterus.{{cite journal |last1=Pabin |first1=Izabela |last2=Stefańska |first2=Katarzyna |last3=Jassem-Bobowicz |first3=Joanna Maria |last4=Wydra |first4=Dariusz |title=En Caul Cesarean Delivery—A Safer Way to Deliver a Premature Newborn? Narrative Review |journal=Journal of Clinical Medicine |date=26 December 2024 |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=51 |doi=10.3390/jcm14010051 |doi-access=free |pmid=39797134 |pmc=11721903}}{{cite journal |last1=Girault |first1=A. |last2=Carteau |first2=M |last3=Kefelian |first3=F. |last4=Menard |first4=S. |last5=Goffinet |first5=F. |last6=Le Ray |first6=C. |title=Benefits of the «en caul» technique for extremely preterm breech vaginal delivery |journal=Journal of Gynecology Obstetrics and Human Reproduction |date=February 2022 |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=102284 |doi=10.1016/j.jogoh.2021.102284 |pmid=34906693 |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34906693/}}

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.{{cite news |last1=Dawe |first1=Ted |title=The strange case of the amniotic sac |url=https://newsroom.co.nz/2021/03/08/the-strange-case-of-the-amniotic-sac/ |access-date=5 June 2025 |work=Newsroom |issue=Readingroom |date=3 August 2021}}

In medieval times, the appearance of a caul on a newborn baby was seen as a sign of good luck.{{cite web |first=Vikki |last=Campion |date=2008-12-31 |url=http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24857363-5001021,00.html |title=Dolores Pancaldi's birth in protective membrane |work=The Daily Telegraph |via=News.com.au |access-date=2011-10-15 }} 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.{{efn|The story of these so-called benandanti is recounted in Carlo Ginzburg's 1983 study.{{cite book |last1=Ginzburg |first1=Carlo |translator-last1=Tedeschi |translator-first1=John |translator-last2=Tedeschi |translator-first2=Anne |author1-link=Carlo Ginzburg |title-link=The Night Battles |title=The night battles: Witchcraft and agrarian cults in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries |date=1983 |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |location=London |isbn=0710095074 |edition=1st |doi=10.4324/9780203819005}}}}

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.{{cite book|last=Oliver|first=Harry|title=Black Cats & Four-Leaf Clovers: The origins of old wives' tales and superstitions in our everyday lives |pages=141–160 |year=2006|publisher=Penguin Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-399-53609-0|chapter=12: Birth}}

In Polish the idiom {{lang|pl|w czepku urodzony/a}} ('born in a bonnet'), in Italian {{lang|it|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.{{cite web |last1=Ronca |first1=Debra |title=What's a Birth Caul, and Why Are People Superstitious About it? |url=https://people.howstuffworks.com/birth-caul-superstition |website=Howstuffworks.com |date=9 July 2015 |publisher=HowStuffWorks |access-date=5 June 2025}}

The Russian phrase {{lang|ru|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.{{cite web |title=Lucky Babies Are Born Caul! |url=https://www.smallacorn.co.uk/funfactfriday/lucky-babies-are-born-caul/ |website=smallacron.com |access-date=5 June 2025 |date=22 June 2018}}

Not all cultural beliefs about cauls are positive. In Romanian folklore babies born with a caul are said to become strigoi upon death.{{Cite book |last=Andreesco |first=Ioanna |author-link=Ioanna Andreesco |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhdwAAAACAAJ |title=Où sont passés les vampires ? |date=2004 |publisher=Payot |isbn=978-2-228-89913-0 |language=fr}}{{Cite book |last=Barber |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQBangEACAAJ |title=Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality |date=2010 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16481-7 |language=en}} 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.{{cite magazine|title=How were the births of babies born with cauls viewed in the past? |url=https://issuu.com/immediatemediaco/docs/bbchistorymagazine_20220901_october2022 |last1=Read |first1=Sara |magazine=BBC History Magazine |number=10 |publisher=Immediate Media Company London Ltd. |date=October 2022 |volume=23 |page=57 |language=en |via=Issuu |department=Q&A: A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts}}

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:

{{poem quote|

Heaven never heard his cry,

Nor did the ocean heed his caul.

}}

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• Barbara BarondessBarondess MacLean, Barbara (1986). One Life is Not Enough. Hippocrene Books: New York. (1907–2000), American actress
• Edwin Booth{{cite book|last=Giblin|first=James|title=Good brother, bad brother: The story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth|year=2005|publisher=Clarion Books|location=New York|isbn=0-618-09642-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/goodbrotherbadbr00gibl/page/7 7]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/goodbrotherbadbr00gibl/page/7}} (1833–1893), American actor
• Lord Byron{{multiref2|1={{cite book |last1=Trueblood |first1=Paul Graham |title=Lord Byron |date=1969 |publisher=Twayne Publishers |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-8057-6694-3 |page=19 |url-access=registration|orig-date=1977 reprint |url=https://archive.org/details/lordbyron00true/page/18/mode/2up}}|2={{cite web |first=Katharine |last=Ellingson |website=Teachers – Eden Prairie High School|url=http://teachers.edenpr.org/~rolson/ArcadiaWeb/Byron/Byron1.html |title=Byron: His Life |date=1998|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205170135/http://teachers.edenpr.org/~rolson/ArcadiaWeb/Byron/Byron1.html |archive-date=5 February 2007 }} (Archived)}}
• Gabriele d'AnnunzioHughes-Hallett, Lucy (2013). The Pike: Gabriele d'Annunzio – poet, seducer and preacher of war. Fourth Estate, p. 90. {{ISBN|978-0-00-721395-5}}.
• J. G. Farrell, novelist{{cite book |last1=Greacen |first1=Lavinia |title=J.G. Farrell: The making of a writer |date=1999 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/jgfarrellmakingo0000grea/page/20/mode/2up |isbn=978-0-7475-4463-0 |pages=21–22 }}{{cite news |title=The Siege of Krishnapur – About the Authors |work=New York Review Books |date=2010 |url=http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/the-siege-of-krishnapur/ |url-access=registration |archive-date=20 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100520235158/http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/the-siege-of-krishnapur/ }}
• Charles Haughey, Taoiseach na hÉireann (Prime Minister of Ireland)
• George Formby, English comedian
• Roksana Węgiel, Polish musical artist
• James VI, King of Scotland and England
• Sigmund Freud{{cite journal |journal=Modern Psychoanalysis |date=1989 |last1=Morgalis |first1= D. P. |title=Freud and his Mother |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=37–56 |url=https://pep-web.org/browse/document/MPSA.014.0037A?page=P0037 |via=PEP Web Archive {{!}} Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing |access-date=15 October 2011 |url-access=limited}}
• Johnny Giles{{cite book|last1=Giles|first1=John|title=A Football Man: The Autobiography|date=2010|publisher=Hodder & Soughton|isbn=978-1-444-72096-9|page=13}}
• Lillian Gish{{cite book |last1=Affron |first1=Charles |title=Lillian Gish: Her legend, her life |date=2002 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley (US) |isbn=978-0-520-23434-5 |page=19 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9790520234344_n2r1/page/18/mode/2up}}
• Liberace
• Edna St. Vincent MillayMilford, Nancy (2002). Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Random House. p. 18. {{ISBN|0-375-76081-4}}.
• Kim Woodburn{{cite book|last=Woodburn|first=Kim|title=Unbeaten: The Story of My Brutal Childhood|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.|date=7 September 2006|isbn=0-340-92221-4}}
• Jonas Salk{{Cite magazine|url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/159990|title=Dr. Jonas Salk, the Knight in a White Lab Coat: An Interview |first=Charlotte DeCroes |last=Jacobs |magazine=History News Network}}
• Abraham Ribicoff{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/07/30/archives/ribicoffs-charmed-life-from-poverty-to-powerr-ribicoffs-charmed.html|title=Ribicoff's Charmed Life: From Poverty to Power|first=Martin|last=Tolchin|date=July 30, 1974|newspaper=The New York Times}}
• Nancy Wake{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.mamamia.com.au/nancy-wake-dead-aged-98-extract-by-peter-fitzsimons/|title=Nancy Wake dead, aged 98. Extract by Peter Fitzsimons|date=August 8, 2011|magazine=Mamamia}}{{Cite book|isbn=0732274567|title=Nancy Wake: A Biography of Our Greatest War Heroine|last1=Fitzsimons|first1=Peter|year=2002|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers Australia }}
• Charles XII of Sweden
• Lee Shelton (disputed)
• Joseph Smith
• Andrew Jackson Davis{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Andrew Jackson |title=The Magic Staff: An Autobiography of Andrew Jackson Davis |date=1867 |publisher=Bella Marsh |location=Boston |page=66 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028954852/page/66/mode/2up}}

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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.{{cite book |last=Dickens |first=Charles|author-link=Charles Dickens|title=David Copperfield|publisher=Oxford University Press|orig-date=First published 1850|page=1 |date=2008}}

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".{{cite book |last1=Carey |first1=Peter |author1-link=Peter Carey (novelist) |title=Oscar and Lucinda |date=1988 |publisher=University of Queensland Press (UQP) |location=St. Lucia, Queensland (Australia) |isbn=0-7022-2116-3|page=215}}

An en caul birth is depicted in the episode "Heavy Hangs the Head" (S03E01) of the Apple TV+ science fiction series See.{{cite web |url=https://readysteadycut.com/2022/08/26/recap-see-season-3-episode-1-apple-tv-plus-series/ |title=See season 3, episode 1 recap – the premiere explained |first=Adam |last=Lock |date=2022-08-26 |work=Ready Steady Cut |access-date=2022-09-07 }}

Other depictions include:

• In 1980 horror film The Shining, Danny Torrance is born with a caul, possibly causing his clairvoyant abilities.
• In Barbara Kingsolver's novel Demon Copperhead (2022), the protagonist is born with a caul, with the superstition that he could not die by drowning.
• In the FX series The Strain, Zach is born in a caul in S3 Episode 3 "First Born".
• In J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist is significantly named Holden Caulfield.{{cite web |last1=Lohnes |first1=Kate |title=The Catcher in the Rye |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Catcher-in-the-Rye |website=Britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=5 June 2025 |date=15 April 2025}}
• In the novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Francie Nolan is born with a caul.

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=Arthur William |title=Folklore of the Isle of Man: Being an account of its myths, legends, superstitions, customs, & proverbs |date=1891 |publisher=Brown & Son; D. Nutt |location=Douglas, Isle of Man; London |pages= 156–157 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/folkloreofisleof00moor/page/156/mode/2up|chapter=8. Customs and Superstitions Connected with Birth, Marriage, and Death §Birth}} ([http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/folklore/ch08.htm Digitised version])

{{wiktionary}}

• Caul Bearers United – Lifting the Veil website. (Self-published; includes references):
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110813062508/http://caulbearersunited.webs.com/authenticcaulhistory.htm "Authentic Caul History"] (archived); and
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120302094954/http://caulbearersunited.webs.com/notablecaulbearersarts.htm "Caul Bearers in Art"] (archived). Collection of short biographies of artists, writers, poets, musicians, composers, etc., born with cauls.

Category:Obstetrics

Category:Midwifery