Gut contents fail to return to the abdomen due to a fault in myogenesis (muscle formation and migration during embryogenesis). During embryogenesis the mesoderm that forms muscle divides into several somites that migrate dorso-ventrally towards the midline. The somites develop three parts that are sclerotome which will form bone, dermatome which will form skin of the back and myotome which will form muscle. The somites that remain close to the neural tube at the back of the body have epaxial myotome, whilst the somites that migrate to the midline have hypaxial myotome. The hypaxial myotome forms the abdominal muscles. The myotome cells will give rise to myoblasts (embryonic progenitor cells) which will align to form myotubules and then muscle fibers. Consequently, the myotome will become three muscle sheets that form the layers of abdominal wall muscles. The muscle of concern for exomphalos is the rectus abdominis. In the disease the muscle undergoes normal differentiation but fails to expand ventro-medially and narrow the umbilical ring which causes the natural umbilical hernia that occurs at 6 weeks of gestation to remain external to the body.