Why to never break the waters without good reason...

This placenta has a velamentous insertion. This type of insertion occurs about 1% of the time. Possible complications include vasaprevia, where the vein covers the cervical opening. The concern would be that one of the veins may break when the bag of waters breaks causing the baby to bleed to death in minutes.

The amazing thing about this placenta and bag of waters is the great number of veins covering the amniotic sac. Had this birth been in the hospital, the bag of waters would have been broken as soon as it could have been and the baby may have died if any of these veins had been nicked. I have to wonder, would they have admitted to the parents that the amniotomy caused the death?  No one but the doctor would know when he examined the sac later.

The bag broke on its own right in the midst of several veins. God is good!

Green dashes on the image below show edge of placents. See how far away the velamatous insertion of the cord is!

This image shows that the cord begins about 5 inches away from the placental edge. Pulling on the cord could have been disasterous also.