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The use of outdated tools increases the risk of sprains and strains.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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