The following is the story of my birth, written by my mom: Marie Holley Meshkin:
About 2am, Sunday May 22, 1977, I couldn't ignore the labor pains anymore. Finally, I got up, showered, and checked again to make sure everything was prepared for this home birth. The spacious master bedroom with its hardwood floors, gas fireplace and beautiful upstairs view was the perfect place to have our ninth child. Most days, a pair of Red Cardinals' could be seen from the large window of our Lumberport, West Virginia home.
I shook Jim awake and had him shower while I prepared the bed for the birth and placed the plywood at a forty-five degree angle at the head of the bed. After this, I called the doctor who lived 45 minutes away. I hesitated calling her because it was the middle of the night and I knew she had given birth to her own baby just a little over a month earlier. There weren't any midwives in the area and no other doctor would do a home birth. My doctor was an intern who had agreed to come to deliver our baby.
I had waited too long to call the doctor and was a bit uneasy, but Jim helped me breathe. A few more pushes and our baby was born with intact water, or "born in the caul", at 4 am.
Between my contractions, Jim had called our neighbor, who was a doctor from France. He and his wife, my doctor, her husband and new baby, all showed up soon after the birth. Our other children were awakened and filed in to see their new little sister. After they all went back to bed, we noticed Matt, over in the corner, watching the new baby with furrowed brows. After a short while, he left to join his other siblings, and I forgot about it...until the following day.
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