A Colorado mom who spent days waiting for an induction that kept getting postponed ended up experiencing one of the rarest types of childbirths. Madisyn Parente, 26, had been counting down to the scheduled birth of her daughter when she received a series of calls from the hospital telling her there was no room to admit her. But after her induction was delayed for a third time, she decided she was done waiting.
I told my body, ‘We’re having the baby today' and I guess the baby agreed.” When she arrived at the hospital, nurses initially expected to send her home. Although monitors were showing contractions, she could barely feel them. A check revealed she was already 4 centimeters dilated, and after a membrane sweep, labor intensified rapidly.
Soon, Parente found herself in a private "spa room" because no delivery rooms were available. While soaking in a bathtub during increasingly intense contractions, she suddenly realized her baby was close. Hospital staff rushed her into a delivery room, where she delivered her daughter after a single prolonged push.
Her daughter, Carter Jeanette, had been born "en caul," meaning she emerged still enclosed within the unbroken amniotic sac that had surrounded her throughout pregnancy. Sometimes referred to as a "mermaid birth" or a "veiled birth," an en caul delivery is considered extremely rare and is estimated to occur in roughly one in every 80,000 births, according to a 2022 study published in the journal Cureus. The mom of two shared her birth story in a clip on TikTok (@madisynparente), which has captivated family, friends and strangers alike.
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