Pa. mom gives birth to premature baby still in amniotic sac

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pittsburgh woman gave birth to her premature son in a vehicle on the way to the hospital — with the baby still in its amniotic sac.

Raelin Scurry posted an Instagram photo of the newborn taken on the way to Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC on Aug. 5. She woke her fiance to drive her there after what she thought were false labor pains turned into the real thing.

"I was just thinking we need to get to the hospital right now," the fiance and the baby's father, Ean Vanstory, told KDKA-TV. "And I was just driving around people and running lights."

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Scurry called 911, but before help could arrive she gave birth to the boy still in the water-filled sac.

The protective sac generally bursts in the earlier stages of labor, commonly referred to as a pregnant woman's "water breaking." Babies birthed in intact amniotic sacs are rare.

Scurry, who works in medical research, knew the baby would be safe in the sac. But she worried when she didn't see him moving.

"At first he was very still, and I went to his face like this through the sac," Scurry told KDKA, indicating she touched the sac with her finger. "And he pulled his hands and his feet up and covered his face in the sac. And I was like, 'He's OK.'"

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Doctors broke the sac when Scurry arrived at the hospital, and the baby started crying immediately, she said.

The boy was born 11 weeks early after 29 weeks' gestation. He was placed on oxygen and is doing well.

His parents named him Ean Jamal Vanstory Jr., after his father. They call him E.J.

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