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The Birth Pause · Yesterday · 42 min

Episode 7: Within The Waters

In this Halloween interlude, Chloe steps away from birth story interviews to explore one of birth’s most mysterious moments: the baby born in the caul, still wrapped in the intact amniotic sac. She starts with a client’s question about what the amniotic sac looks and feels like, and remembers touching membranes for the first time after her oldest son’s birth: silky, pearly, and otherworldly. She explains what a caul birth is, how partial and complete caul births differ, and why homebirth midwives see them far more often than hospitals do. She also shares her own numbers from 2026: three partial caul births out of 21 births so far this year. Chloe then makes the clinical case for leaving membranes intact. She covers the cushioning and buoyancy that may help a baby find a better position, the risks of cord compression and prolapse once the waters are broken, infection risk, and what the evidence says about whether amniotomy actually shortens labour. She illustrates this with a recent long labour where a baby in an OP position rotated, the waters broke on their own, and he was born 20 minutes later. The episode then turns to caul folklore across centuries and continents: Ancient Rome’s “helmeted infant” and the practice of reading the caul’s colour (amniomancy) The benandanti of Friuli, “good walkers” whose caul marked a spiritual calling Second sight and healing gifts in African diaspora traditions, including a 1930s Southern midwife’s account The British Isles and North Sea, where cauls were sold to sailors as charms against drowning Chloe also busts a common myth about the Dalai Lama. She closes by asking why so many unrelated cultures arrived at similar beliefs, and reflects on intuition as a real part of good midwifery alongside evidence-based care. Citations: Forbes, Thomas R. "The Social History of the Caul." Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, vol. 25, 1953, pp. 495–508. Museum of Cambridge. "Folklore Finds: Lucky Cauls and their Travels." 30 Aug. 2023. Crawford-Mowday, Imogen. "Caul: A Sailor's Charm." Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. Adkins, Roy and Lesley. "Swimming, Drowning and Amulets: Old Attitudes to Safety at Sea." Lloyd's Register Foundation Heritage. Baines, C. C. "Children Born with a Caul." Folklore, vol. 61, no. 2, June 1950, p. 104. Ginzburg, Carlo. The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Trans. John and Anne Tedeschi. Johns Hopkins UP, 1983. Jung, C. G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Translated by R. F. C. Hull, 2nd ed., Princeton University Press (Bollingen Series XX), 1968. Rich, Carroll Y. "Born with the Veil: Black Folklore in Louisiana." The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 89, no. 353, 1976, pp. 328–331. Köpping, Klaus-Peter. Adolf Bastian and the Psychic Unity of Mankind: The Foundations of Anthropology in Nineteenth-Century Germany. University of Queensland Press, 1983. Maxwell, Kelena Reid. "Birth Behind the Veil: African American Midwives and Mothers in the Rural South, 1921–1962." PhD diss., Rutgers University. "Placenta." Encyclopedia of African Religion, eds. Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama, SAGE, 2009, p. 529. Curry, Claudine, and Mildred H.B. Roberson. My Bag Was Always Packed. 1st Books, 2003, p. 35. Maiolatesi, L. Graciella. "This Baby Had One of the Most Sacred Births Possible." PushBlack, 15 June 2023. (journalistic, not academic) Smyth, R. M. D., Alldred, S. K., & Markham, C. (2013). Amniotomy for shortening spontaneous labour. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (6), CD006167. PMID: 23780653 DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006167.pub3 [1, 2, 3] About The Birth Pause Chloe searched for an existing podcast to share this story and couldn't find one that felt right. Most birth story podcasts offered long, linear play-by-plays from start to finish. What she wanted was something different — interview style conversations with the families she's attended, blending their lived experience with her clinical insight, told together, in each other's presence. The Birth Pause explores birth not as a medical event but as a spiritual and personal transformation. Each episode asks not what happened, but what it did to you. Hosted by Chloe Campbell — licensed midwife, founder of Supernatural Midwifery, and someone who has sat at the threshold with hundreds of families across New York City. This is not a play-by-play. This is the story underneath the story. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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In this Halloween interlude, Chloe steps away from birth story interviews to explore one of birth’s most mysterious moments: the baby born in the caul, still wrapped in the intact amniotic sac.


She starts with a client’s question about what the amniotic sac looks and feels like, and remembers touching membranes for the first time after her oldest son’s birth: silky, pearly, and otherworldly. She explains what a caul birth is, how partial and complete caul births differ, and why homebirth midwives see them far more often than hospitals do. She also shares her own numbers from 2026: three partial caul births out of 21 births so far this year.


Chloe then makes the clinical case for leaving membranes intact. She covers the cushioning and buoyancy that may help a baby find a better position, the risks of cord compression and prolapse once the waters are broken, infection risk, and what the evidence says about whether amniotomy actually shortens labour. She illustrates this with a recent long labour where a baby in an OP position rotated, the waters broke on their own, and he was born 20 minutes later.


The episode then turns to caul folklore across centuries and continents:

  • Ancient Rome’s “helmeted infant” and the practice of reading the caul’s colour (amniomancy)
  • The benandanti of Friuli, “good walkers” whose caul marked a spiritual calling
  • Second sight and healing gifts in African diaspora traditions, including a 1930s Southern midwife’s account
  • The British Isles and North Sea, where cauls were sold to sailors as charms against drowning


Chloe also busts a common myth about the Dalai Lama. She closes by asking why so many unrelated cultures arrived at similar beliefs, and reflects on intuition as a real part of good midwifery alongside evidence-based care.


Citations:

  • Forbes, Thomas R. "The Social History of the Caul." Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, vol. 25, 1953, pp. 495–508.
  • Museum of Cambridge. "Folklore Finds: Lucky Cauls and their Travels." 30 Aug. 2023.
  • Crawford-Mowday, Imogen. "Caul: A Sailor's Charm." Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.
  • Adkins, Roy and Lesley. "Swimming, Drowning and Amulets: Old Attitudes to Safety at Sea." Lloyd's Register Foundation Heritage.
  • Baines, C. C. "Children Born with a Caul." Folklore, vol. 61, no. 2, June 1950, p. 104.
  • Ginzburg, Carlo. The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Trans. John and Anne Tedeschi. Johns Hopkins UP, 1983.
  • Jung, C. G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Translated by R. F. C. Hull, 2nd ed., Princeton University Press (Bollingen Series XX), 1968.
  • Rich, Carroll Y. "Born with the Veil: Black Folklore in Louisiana." The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 89, no. 353, 1976, pp. 328–331.
  • Köpping, Klaus-Peter. Adolf Bastian and the Psychic Unity of Mankind: The Foundations of Anthropology in Nineteenth-Century Germany. University of Queensland Press, 1983.
  • Maxwell, Kelena Reid. "Birth Behind the Veil: African American Midwives and Mothers in the Rural South, 1921–1962." PhD diss., Rutgers University.
  • "Placenta." Encyclopedia of African Religion, eds. Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama, SAGE, 2009, p. 529.
  • Curry, Claudine, and Mildred H.B. Roberson. My Bag Was Always Packed. 1st Books, 2003, p. 35.
  • Maiolatesi, L. Graciella. "This Baby Had One of the Most Sacred Births Possible." PushBlack, 15 June 2023. (journalistic, not academic)
  • Smyth, R. M. D., Alldred, S. K., & Markham, C. (2013). Amniotomy for shortening spontaneous labour. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (6), CD006167. PMID: 23780653 DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006167.pub3 [1, 2, 3]

About The Birth Pause


Chloe searched for an existing podcast to share this story and couldn't find one that felt right. Most birth story podcasts offered long, linear play-by-plays from start to finish. What she wanted was something different — interview style conversations with the families she's attended, blending their lived experience with her clinical insight, told together, in each other's presence.


The Birth Pause explores birth not as a medical event but as a spiritual and personal transformation. Each episode asks not what happened, but what it did to you.


Hosted by Chloe Campbell — licensed midwife, founder of Supernatural Midwifery, and someone who has sat at the threshold with hundreds of families across New York City. This is not a play-by-play. This is the story underneath the story.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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