ON a recent quiet morning, Regina Llanes Granillo placed her hands on a new mother's body.
She and another midwife began a sobada, a Maya abdominal massage meant to help the intestines settle back into place. With warm lavender and lemon balm oil, she traced slow circles across the stomach, the ladder of the intestines, the ovaries.
Her hands paused at the belly button, pressing lightly, searching for what she called a "heartbeat" - a psychic pulse that she said would reveal whether the body's energy was too high or too low.
The ritual was a tribute not only to the child born months earlier, but to the transformation of her friend, Kay Nicte Cisneros Garcia, into a new mother: a birth within a birth.
Then she bound Cisneros with shawls and led her to a bath infused with herbs. These are the kind of midwife practices rooted in Indigenous traditions and knowledge that an increasing number of women in Mexico are turning to, experts say.
Just as more women have been seeking out midwives and doulas in the United States and Europe over the last decade, interest has risen in Mexico, including in the capital, according to researchers, health experts and midwives.
Here, women navigating the sometimes isolating experience of motherhood say the traditions offer a more personal and meaningful approach to childbirth and postpartum care than conventional health centres, clinics or hospitals usually provide.
Until recently, modern medicine in Mexico had largely brushed aside older midwife traditions. Some doctors say some of the practices can be dangerous if they replace professional care from an obstetrician- gynaecologist, especially in complicated pregnancies.
But even sceptical health professionals acknowledge that, in remote and rural communities where clinics, hospitals and social services are scarce or nonexistent, traditional midwives remain essential frontline health workers. There are more than 15,000 of them nationwide, according to government
Midwives perform a traditional postpartum care ritual for Cisneros, a first-time mother. Photo: Greta Rico/The New York Times data.
Important but limited
Dr Alejandra Seligson, an obstetrician-gynaecologist in Mexico City, recognised the important role traditional midwives play, particularly in rural areas, but warned that their care has limits.
Conditions such as preeclampsia, she said, require close monitoring in a hospital setting.
Screening, she added is essential. Midwifery should be limited to low-risk pregnancies to avoid putting mothers and babies at risk when dealing with complications.
In cities where traffic can delay emergency transfers, home births can carry additional dangers. "Minutes are critical," she said. "A swift transfer to a hospital can mean the difference between the baby
suffering permanent brain damage and not."
She argued that obstetric care and traditional midwifery should coexist, as they offer complementary forms of care.
Amparo Calderon, 48, a traditional midwife of Maya descent who lives on the outskirts of Mexico City, said that public perception, especially abroad, had long reduced traditional midwifery to images of Indigenous women delivering babies.
"In truth it carries a far broader, ancestral worldview and philosophy," Calderon said, noting that the actual number of traditional midwives may be an undercount, since many remain unregistered with the government.
But in recent years, the practice has flourished and has found new ground in the country's largest cities, hastened by the pandemic.
Faced with overcrowded hospitals and the fear of contagion there, many expectant mothers turned to midwives, who generally work at home or in midwife centres known as casas de partería. They sought what they said was a safer, more intimate alternative, Cisneros recalled.
Cisneros, 26, trained for four years at a centre in the capital and said that midwifery offers "a more dignified, loving and respectful" approach to pregnancy, birth and motherhood than the typical clinical setting.
Items including a burning stick of dried mugwort and charcoal are used to warm certain points on the body. Photo: Greta Rico/The New York Times
Old rituals
During Cisneros' own session, Llanes, 29, used cigar-shaped sticks of dried mugwort and charcoal, lit near the skin to warm certain points - a technique sometimes used in other cultures' traditional medicine. Midwives in Mexico often also use the heat of freshly pressed tortillas or warm volcanic rocks.
Next came "el abrazo del rebozo," or the "embrace of the shawl," a ritual meant for "closing" a woman's spirit and energy after the opening of childbirth.
Seven shawls were laid out, each draped and tightened around a part of Cisneros' body: The hips were bound tightest to realign the pelvis, Llanes explained, adding that each shawl carried its own meaning.
"The wrapping is like an embrace that centers you and holds you," said Cisneros, who gave birth in June to her first child, a daughter named Inti. "It closes everything that was opened to give way to your baby's life."
The two midwives swaddled Cisneros across the chest to symbolise a self-hug, "an act of return," said Llanes.
Finally, layers of fabric enveloped Cisneros like a cocoon. Slowly she emerged from the folds, as if she herself were being born again - "because no woman is ever the same after giving birth," Llanes said.
Then came a bath infused with arnica, basil, lemon balm, calendula, rosemary and other medicinal plants - an anointing for her body and her spirit, the midwives said.
After a while, her baby daughter was slipped into the warm water with her, and they rested in a quiet embrace.
The wrapping and postpartum herbal bath are just two of the ceremonies offered by parteras across Mexico and other parts of Latin America.
In Mexico, midwives generally fall into three categories: those trained at universities and formal institutions; those considered independent, like Cisneros and Llanes, who trained in programmes run by nonprofits and casas de partería, which blend modern obstetric training with traditional practices; and traditional midwives, who draw on knowledge passed down orally, often in Indigenous languages.
The Mexican government has recently moved to formally recognise the role of midwifery in women's health. In March, it issued a decree that formally recognised the value of midwives in women's health and said it would set criteria for integrating midwifery into maternal health services. - ©2025 The New York Times Company