These archives contain extracts from discussions held on the UK Midwives and Consumers email list, a discussion group for people interested in midwifery in the UK. Open to midwives, students, mothers, and anyone interested in improving maternity services in UK. Posts in these archives express the views of the individual authors, and not those of the Association of Radical Midwives.
I have been asked by one of my women if she can be given the baby's caul.
I did a google search re 'caul' and there was quite a lot of interesting stuff on the web.
Apparently there is a difference to being born in your membranes and being born in a caul.
A true caul apparently has a demarcation point just above the ears where there
seems to be some folding back/thickening of membranes so it looks like a hat,
in this case it is easy to preserve the caul but not so when if the baby is
born in membranes apparently (can't remember which site I got this off though!!!:))
Cheryl
I just gave them the bit I had peeled off from the baby's face as this sort of came away separately from the other bit.
Interestingly though, when I looked at it later, even though I knew there was a large chunk missing, I could fit the two torn bits to each other and would have considered the membranes to be complete.
The weirdest thing was when the head crowned, you could see the hair sort of waving about!
Anna
Apparently, it was once said that a baby born in the caul would never drown at sea. Many years ago, sailors would purchase cauls for many hundreds of pounds, presumably to get some of the luck, & protect against drowning? I hope I've got this correct?
Love Elaine
I also have a caul in a pot.
It was the caul of a second twin, born in water, and the parents did not want to keep it, so gave me permission to store it.
Mary told me to wrap it around a wooden ball and put it in a pot. I have, and it sits on my bookshelf in my study - a great talking point!
Lynn
LW updated July 9, 2004