Be born in a shirt and survive

"Born in a shirt" - more than once lucky and happy people have heard such a phrase directed to his address. And where did this expression come from, what does it mean? Let's figure it out. To be born in a shirt means to be born in an unexploded, integral amniotic membrane. It envelops the newborn like a shirt. Usually this complicates labor: the baby can suffocate. In the old days, with the almost complete absence of medicine, surviving with such births is already happiness. That's the origin of the belief that being born in a shirt means being happy all your life. Sometimes a newborn is born not in a shirt, but in a so-called cap, when only his head is covered with a shell. Such children were credited with the ability to clairvoyance, witchcraft, and other mystical characteristics.

To be born in a shirt is good or bad?

At the beginning of the last century it was deadly. Children born in the amniotic fluid bladder often suffocated or died from the effects of amniotic fluid. Today, there is practically no such danger. Modern medicine has invented a method (amniotomy) that allows a child to leave his protective intrauterine shell in time. Those who were born today in a shirt, is getting smaller.

Why is this happening?

Some women have insufficient amniotic fluid or too tight and elastic amniotic fluid. This may be due to genetic, medicinal effects or some diseases. In this case, even if the cervix is fully opened to release the newborn, the bladder does not burst (as with normal delivery). He remains whole. It is in this case that doctors apply amniotomy, or an artificial puncture of the bladder. The word "amniotomy" consists of two: "shell" + "dissection". The operation is carried out almost every woman who gives birth according to plan. The doctor takes a special hook and pierces the amniotic fluid in such a way that the water in front of the infant's head begins to flow. Those that are behind, remain in the bladder and help the newborn to smoothly cross the path outward. It's almost impossible to be born in a shirt today. It is worth noting that the procedure is completely painless and even imperceptible: in the fetal membrane there are no nerve endings.

Who has the amniotomy?

Doctors do not believe that being born in a shirt is a great happiness, and therefore every woman in childbirth who has entered the hospital is carefully examined. Not all future mothers avoid the preliminary puncture of the bladder. Here are the indications for which amniotomy is mandatory:

• Overpopulation of pregnancy. If the fetus is more than 41 weeks, the envelope of the bladder becomes very dense. It almost misses oxygen and nutrients. The fruit can perish.
• Prolonged contractions. They are so tired of a woman that she does not have the strength to go. With prolonged labor, the fetus is asphyxiated.
• Gestosis. This is a special pathological condition of pregnant women, which is accompanied by the appearance of very high blood pressure, protein in the urine, vascular and autonomic system disorders, edema.
• Time did not open the cervix.

Those who are born in a shirt, today, almost do not differ from other people. However, the observation of doctors for such lucky people in the first years of life is mandatory.