Home Birth

RUTH WOULD ATTEST to the fact that nursing does not prevent pregnancy, since she conceived the couple’s second child while nursing, a year and a half after Elizabeth’s birth. And so, it was that on a hot summer day nineteen-year-old Ruth called from the cabin door, “Charlie, I think it’s time! You better get Doc Perkins!”

Charlie had been adjusting the tractor carburetor with a small wrench when Ruth called. He slipped the wrench in his pocket and hurried to her. “Are you sure?” he asked.

“I’m sure,” Ruth answered.

Charlie grabbed the car keys hanging from a nail beside the door, kissed Ruth, and hurried to undo the boat. While poling across the river, he spotted one of his buddies, Johnny Kamaski, wading along the shoreline, fishing. Johnny was about Ruth’s age.

“Hey, Johnny,” Charlie called. “Ruth’s gone into labor. I’m getting Doc Perkins. Would you go over and stay with her?”

“What?” Johnny asked.

“Go stay with Ruth. She’s going to have a baby,” Charlie repeated.

“Oh, okay. Okay, I guess I can,” Johnny replied nervously.

BETWEEN LABOR PAINS, Ruth prepared for the birth. Though the day was hot, very hot, she started a fire in the woodstove and heated water, covered the bed with layers of newspapers and placed clean towels made from a discarded flannel bedsheet at the foot of the bed and two pillows at the head. While she did this, toddler Betty watched from her crib, and Johnny Kamaski watched while standing in the open door.

Ruth was at the kitchen table when her water broke. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “I guess I’m having this baby now!” She waddled to the bed, lifted herself onto the newspapers, and braced herself against the cabin wall as she recalled Doc Perkins’s words, “Bear down. Bear down.” She bore down, and her second child was born.

“Johnny,” she said. “You have to cut the umbilical cord.”

“What?” Johnny questioned in disbelief.

“Take the scissors off the table and cut that,” she said while pointing to the cord connecting her to the baby. Johnny’s face turned a pale green as he gingerly lifted the fleshy cord and snipped it.

“Now tie it,” Ruth directed. “Tie both ends.” Johnny’s hands trembled, but he did as he was directed. Not long after the birth, Doc Perkins arrived with Charlie.

“Well,” he said. “Looks like you managed just fine. Very resourceful. Very resourceful.”

When Ruth told the doctor that Johnny had cut and tied the umbilical cord, Doc Perkins said, “Oh, that wasn’t necessary. It could have waited. The fluid in the cord turns to gel once exposed to air.”

And so it was that Charles Leroy, Jr. was born on July 28, 1934. From that day forward, Johnny Kamaski was known by many as Doc Johnny.