Scattered through the printed sources on New Mexico folk customs, one finds occasional references to the practices of Hispanic midwives, or parteras. Over the years, I've assembled a file on this important but neglected subject.

In New Mexican towns and villages, the midwife typically was an old woman, well-versed in assisting at childbirth. Many started as young girls who seemed to have a calling for this kind of work.

They would serve lengthy apprenticeships alongside an established partera. Jesusita Aragón of Las Vegas at age 13 learned the rudiments of midwifery from her grandmother and followed that occupation for more than 50 years.

I got interested long ago when I stumbled upon a description of the traditional way childbirth was handled by midwives. At the beginning of labor, la partera was summoned and she quickly prepared the birthing room.

First, she swept the dirt floor and sprinkled it with water to keep the dust down. Then a fluffy sheepskin (salea) was placed on the floor so that the woman during delivery could kneel upon it.

Directly above, a horizontal rod was suspended from the viga by two cords, like a small trapeze. The expectant mother held on to it with both hands during her ordeal.

Usually, the midwife arrived at the home accompanied by an assistant, a strong man known as a tenedor, or holder. He had plenty to do, especially if it was a first child (primerisa).

According to my sources, during delivery the tenedor, positioned behind the woman, exerted steady pressure on her back with his knee. He may also have played a role in use of the "birthing sash."

Collector Ward Alan Minge of Corrales showed me one of those many years ago. It was a wide, woven sash of homespun wool, all white. He thought it might be the only surviving example.

Dr. Minge said it had belonged to a midwife from the Taos area who used the article to support the weight of the unborn child. To date, I've found no other mention of the sash in New Mexico.

In Old Mexico, however, following birth of the infant, a sash was tightened around the upper abdomen to prevent blood and the placenta from rising in the mother and causing her death. At least that was the prevailing folk belief.

Curiously, childbirth practices among the Plains Indians showed similarities with those in New Mexico. Native women in labor knelt on the ground inside a tepee, grasping a rod suspended from the tepee poles. An attending woman applied pressure to the abdomen from behind, while another received the baby and cut the cord.

An odd custom is reported from Rio Arriba County. When a wife was ready to deliver, her husband was sent to an adjoining room by the partera. There he danced to honor San Ramón Nonato, the patron saint of midwives.

When I failed to find references to such dancing in my familiar sources, I began asking old-timers about it. The only one who could add a few details on the matter was the late folklorist Pedro Ribera Ortega. He was one of five boys, all born at home in Santa Fe with the aid of a partera.

Pedro confirmed that dancing as well as prayers offered to San Ramón were part of the birth process in early New Mexico. And he added that the same activities were directed toward San Cayetano, patron of the poor and sick.

I checked and found that in Spain, San Cayetano has long been appealed to by midwives and pregnant women. It appears that associating San Ramón with childbirth may be unique to New Mexico.

Pedro also told me that when his grandmother was young and one of her friends was expecting a difficult delivery, she would say a novena and at its end dance a jig in honor of San Cayetano.

Midwives of old possessed an assortment of folk ideas and behaviors that shaped the structure of their profession. These together with their distinctive medical procedures began to fade away with advent of the 20th century.

The Las Vegas partera Jesusita Aragón remembered that by 1920, the mother kneeling and holding to the overhead rod was fast disappearing.

In the 1980s during an interview, she expressed the belief that patients squatting and holding the overhead stick was superior to what followed "when they started laying on their backs."

Summing up, she declared: "I'm not sure why they changed to that, but I think it was probably because to squat down was considered 'the old-fashioned way.' "

Historian Marc Simmons is author of numerous books on New Mexico and the Southwest. His column appears Saturdays.