The Huichol are Indigenous people that originated from the deep mountains of Central Mexico some 15,000 years ago. Today, they live in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains and work as subsistence farmers, growing maize, beans, squash, and cucumbers.

According to their ancient traditions, both men and women experience the pain of childbirth together. The father would position himself on the rafters with rope tied around his scrotum, which would be pulled by the mother during delivery.

Today, we know very little of the medical knowledge and birth customs of the Indigenous people of the Americas because much of their hand-painted manuscripts were destroyed by Spanish conquistadors and missionaries who viewed them as "pagan" practices.