diff --git a/docs/v4.0.0/MESH.md b/docs/v4.0.0/MESH.md
index af5048ea..45bde8fe 100644
--- a/docs/v4.0.0/MESH.md
+++ b/docs/v4.0.0/MESH.md
@@ -1318,6 +1318,28 @@ she then sends the newborn its capsules through the port that joins them.
 Putting a node to sleep, waking it, and removing it are requests of the
 same kind. Only Hera's requests are honoured.
 
+**Changed 2026-10-16: births follow v3** (Captain Bob: "we want v3
+behavior for v4"). The last sentence above no longer holds, and is kept as
+what step 5 built. v3, as built (`kernel/src/capsule/mama_forth_words.c`,
+`capsule_birth.c`; `FABRIC-3.5.md` §IX.2, §XV.1):
+
+- Any VM may birth. `BIRTH` and `CAPSULE-BIRTH` are registered in every
+  VM, not in Hera alone. Hera differs from the others only in her access
+  to the kernel's capsule repository (`FABRIC-3.md` §XX).
+- The child's parent is the VM that births it. Authority goes only down
+  the birth graph, never sideways or up.
+- The child cannot have more than its parent: its words' access records
+  are copied from its parent's at birth, once, and never kept in step
+  after (`dictionary_snapshot_acl_from_parent`).
+- `S" name" BIRTH` births from the capsule `name:init.4th`. A name that is
+  already live is not born again, and Hera cannot be born again.
+- `KILL` is Hera's alone.
+
+So in v4 a node's requests to be given a node, to wire it and to send it
+its capsules are honoured from any node, and the newborn is wired to the
+node that asked and is its child. Killing stays Hera's. How each of these
+is carried on a mesh is the design of step 7 (section 10).
+
 The unit rule (ruling 5) is Hera's, in capsule code: it is what she does
 with those requests. The engine and the host do not know it.