Medicine: Pre-Birth Cry

Not all babies have the patience to hold off their wails till birth. Throughout history some restless infants were reported to have cried in the womb, but until relatively modern times doctors and midwives often thought it best not to publicize the fact lest they be accused of witchcraft. Last week in Britain’s Lancet, a doctor described a latter-day occurrence of the phenomenon, known as vagitus uterinus (from the Latin vagire, to squall).

One of three attending doctors at Victoria Cottage Hospital in Sidmouth, England assisted a young mother in a difficult labor by passing his hand into the uterus to bring down a leg. During this maneuver, reports Dr. P.M.G. Russell, the three physicians heard “a clear, remote cry very like a baby crying in the next room, but close below our heads.” When a nurse returned to the room, disappointed at having missed the event, the infant obliged with another cry so loud that a doctor put his ear on the mother’s abdomen to confirm beyond doubt that the cry came from the womb. The baby (a boy) was delivered safely.

There is some danger that such early-crying babies will drown in the womb’s fluid, says Dr. Russell, but this risk is much smaller than the danger of birth trauma that may be caused by attempts to hasten delivery. Considering the long rehearsal and preparation for birth that infants undergo, says Dr. Russell, the surprising fact is that more babies do not begin to wail in the womb.