Gender
Motherhood in the Fields: The Unseen Health Toll on Women Farmers
Across many farming communities in Northern Ghana, women routinely carry their infants on their backs while engaging in strenuous farm labour. This practice, though rooted in necessity and resilience, exposes both mothers and their babies to significant health risks, particularly musculoskeletal strain and developmental concerns.
For these women, the decision to take babies to the farm is rarely optional. It reflects the absence of affordable childcare, entrenched gender roles, and persistent economic pressures that compel women to combine farming, childcare, and household duties simultaneously.
Everyday Reality
In many rural communities in Northern Ghana, women begin their day before sunrise, balancing farm work with domestic responsibilities such as fetching water and firewood, cooking, and caring for children. Carrying infants on their backs, strapped with cloth, enables them to breastfeed and monitor their babies while going about their farming activities.
The use of outdated tools increases the risk of sprains and strains. Exposure to pesticides, extreme heat, and zoonotic infections further endanger women, especially those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Effects on Mothers
Dr. Enoch Harvoh, a Senior Medical Doctor at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, explained in an interview with GNA that the primary health risks stem from prolonged physical strain. He identified several key concerns, including musculoskeletal pain, postural changes, chronic fatigue, injury risk, and other hazards such women face.
Dr. Harvoh explained that musculoskeletal issues such as chronic lower back, upper back, neck, and shoulder pain are common among women who farm with babies on their backs. He added that back-carrying alters spinal alignment, increasing pelvic tilt and causing abnormal curvature of the spine, medically described as cervokypholordotic posture.
The combination of farming, domestic work, and childcare leads to severe physical exhaustion and stress, while frequent bending, squatting, and lifting further contribute to physical strain.
Effects on Infants
While back-carrying supports bonding and infant safety, prolonged exposure in farm environments presents risks to infants. These include:
- Lower limb development concerns
- Restricted movement and visual stimulation
- Potentially affected sensorimotor development
- Exposure to farm hazards including chemicals, machinery, and excessive heat
According to Dr. Harvoh, some studies link extended back-carrying to changes in leg alignment, such as genu valgum (knock-knees), though these are often within normal clinical limits.
Labour and Time Constraints
Women face chronic labour shortages, especially during peak farming seasons. Combined with unpaid domestic work and childcare, this creates extreme physical and mental strain.
Madam Saada Abdul, a farmer from Kpadjai in the Kpandai District, told GNA that she regularly carries her baby while weeding, harvesting, transporting crops, and cooking. “The work is very hard, and the baby’s weight adds to the pain in my back and waist. I hardly get time to rest compared to my husband,” she said.
Similarly, Madam Ramatu Iddris from the Nawuri community explained that women often prioritise labour on their husbands’ farms, reducing productivity on their own plots. Limited access to tractors, credit, extension services, and market information forces many women to rely on manual labour while carrying their babies.
These compounded challenges heighten women’s vulnerability to climate shocks such as drought, erratic rainfall, and economic downturns.
Intersecting Challenges
The practice of carrying babies to farms is embedded within broader structural inequalities. Customary inheritance systems largely favour men, leaving women with limited access to land. Many women farm on their husbands’ plots or borrow small, less fertile parcels of land, discouraging long-term investment and access to credit or extension services.
Women account for more than half of Ghana’s agricultural labour force, particularly in subsistence farming in the Northern Sector, yet much of their work remains informal and undervalued, with limited recognition in economic planning and policy frameworks.
Resilience and Coping Strategies
Despite these hardships, Northern women farmers demonstrate remarkable resilience. Common coping mechanisms include forming women’s farming groups to access training, credit, and inputs. Livelihood diversification, such as engaging in shea butter processing, poultry rearing, petty trading, charcoal production, and seasonal migration, can help supplement income.
Recommendations
Stakeholders in agriculture, health, and local governance must prioritise targeted interventions to reduce the physical burden on women farmers. Key recommendations include:
- Establishing community-based childcare centres to reduce the need to carry babies to farms
- Providing practical ergonomic training on safe lifting, posture, and culturally appropriate baby-carrying techniques
- Improving access to appropriate farm tools and small-scale mechanisation
- Strengthening workplace protections through rest breaks, access to potable water, and protective equipment
- Formally recognising women’s unpaid care and agricultural labour in national and district development planning
Health professionals also recommend targeted strengthening and stretching exercises for the lower back and pelvic muscles to mitigate long-term physical strain associated with combined farming and childcare responsibilities.
Conclusion
Women farmers are indispensable to Ghana’s food security and rural livelihoods. Yet their contributions come at a high personal cost due to systemic inequities, limited support services, and entrenched gender roles.
Addressing the health and productivity challenges faced by women who farm with babies on their backs is not only a matter of equity but a critical investment in national development, public health, and future generations.
—GNA
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The Founder of The Raissa Child Protection Initiative (TRCPI), Ms Raissa Sambou, has called for intensified efforts to eliminate child labour across Africa, describing the practice as a serious violation of children’s rights and a major threat to their development and future.
She urged governments, individuals, civil society organisations, religious bodies, and traditional and religious leaders to work together to protect children from all forms of labour that deprive them of their childhood, education, and well-being.
Ms Sambou made the call on Thursday as the world marked the World Day Against Child Labour, an annual observance held on June 12 to raise awareness about child labour and mobilise action towards its elimination. This year’s commemoration was observed under the theme, “Red Card to Child Labour: Fair Play for Children, Decent Work for Adults.”
According to her, child labour continues to affect thousands of children across Ghana and other parts of Africa, exposing them to exploitation and denying them opportunities to reach their full potential.
“Child labour can affect the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of children. It interrupts their education, exposes them to abuse and exploitation, increases their risk of injuries and long-term health problems, and limits their chances of breaking the cycle of poverty,” she stated.
Ms Sambou further noted that children engaged in labour often suffer from low self-esteem, social exclusion and trauma, with many unable to acquire the skills and education needed to contribute meaningfully to national development.
She stressed that protecting children was a collective responsibility and called for stronger enforcement of child protection laws, increased public awareness, and greater investment in social protection programmes for vulnerable families.
Ms Sambou also identified poverty as one of the major drivers of child labour and warned that failure to address economic hardship would continue to expose children to exploitation and other forms of abuse.
She called on policymakers to strengthen interventions aimed at reducing poverty, improving access to quality education and supporting struggling households.
“We must not allow ignorance and poverty to thrive. When poverty is not adequately addressed, it fuels child labour and other crimes against children. Let the systems work effectively to shield every child from harm and give them the opportunity to learn, grow and succeed,” she added.
The World Day Against Child Labour was established by the International Labour Organisation in 2002 to focus global attention on the need to eradicate child labour and protect the rights and welfare of children worldwide.
By Esinam Jemima Kuatsinu
Plan International Ghana has reaffirmed its commitment to advancing menstrual health and hygiene management (MHHM) and promoting the rights, dignity and well-being of girls and women across the country.
Mr Mathias Gangana, Southern Programme Influencing and Impact Area Manager of Plan International Ghana, said the organisation’s interventions over the past decade had helped address menstrual poverty, challenge harmful social norms and create enabling environments for girls to thrive.
He was speaking at the UHAS, RGHI Project Dissemination Forum held at the Fred N. Binka School of Public Health on the Hohoe Campus of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS).
Mr Gangana said, as an organisation dedicated to children’s rights and gender equality, particularly for girls, Plan International Ghana had implemented transformative interventions that had significantly improved menstrual health outcomes nationwide.
He said through comprehensive menstrual health education programmes, the organisation had reached girls, boys, parents, teachers and community members, increased awareness and reducing the stigma associated with menstruation.
Mr Gangana said thousands of vulnerable girls had been empowered to manage menstruation with dignity and confidence through the provision of sanitary pads, reusable menstrual products and the establishment of pad banks in schools, including special schools and some tertiary institutions.
He said those interventions had contributed to improved school attendance and greater participation in academic activities among girls.
Mr Gangana said Plan International Ghana had also strengthened Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services through the installation and rehabilitation of handwashing facilities, the provision of clean water and soap, and the construction of gender-responsive, inclusive and disability-friendly sanitation facilities.
He said those investments had improved privacy, safety and comfort for girls while promoting healthy hygiene practices in schools and communities.
Recognising that menstrual health was a shared responsibility, Mr Gangana said the organisation had actively engaged men and boys through initiatives such as the “Real Fathers” campaign to foster understanding and support for girls and women.
He said advocacy and community sensitisation programmes had also contributed to reducing discrimination, challenging harmful gender norms and advancing gender equality.
According to him, the interventions had yielded significant outcomes, including increased knowledge and awareness of menstrual health, improved access to menstrual hygiene products, enhanced school attendance and academic participation among girls, strengthened hygiene practices, increased male involvement and stronger community ownership of menstrual health initiatives.
“As we reflect on these achievements, we stand in solidarity with all partners, lecturers, teachers, community leaders, parents, girls and young people who have contributed and continue to support this important journey,” he said.
Mr Gangana said the collective efforts of stakeholders had empowered countless girls to remain in school, participate confidently in community development and realise their full potential.
He reaffirmed Plan International Ghana’s commitment to sustaining efforts that would ensure every girl could manage menstruation safely, confidently and with dignity.
“Together, let us build a more just, inclusive and equitable society where no girl is left behind simply because of her period,” he said. -GNA
