Africa-Press – Ghana. 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, striped with cloth, enables them to breastfeed and monitor their babies, while going about their farming activities.
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.
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 of the women farm on their husbands’ plots or borrow small, less fertile parcels of land to farm on, discouraging long-term investment and access to credit or extension services.
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 the Ghana News Agency (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 in the same district explained that women often prioritise labour on their husbands’ farms, reducing productivity on their own plots.
She noted that 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.
Effects of Health 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 while carrying an external load during labour-intensive activities.
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 which is chronic lower back, upper back, neck, and shoulder pain are common among women who farm with babies on their backs, adding that back-carrying alters spinal alignment, increasing pelvic tilt and causing abnormal curvature of the spine, medically described as cervokypholordotic posture.
The medic said the combination of farming, domestic work, and childcare leads to severe physical exhaustion and stress, while frequent bending, squatting, and the use of outdated tools increase 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 infants
Dr Harvoh noted that while back-carrying supports bonding and infant safety, prolonged exposure in farm environments presents risks to infants. These include lower limb development, developmental stimulation, and environmental risks.
According to him, some studies link extended back-carrying to changes in leg alignment, such as genu valgum (knock-knees), although these are often within normal clinical limits. Also, extremely long periods of carrying may restrict movement and visual stimulation, potentially affecting sensorimotor development. While infants may be exposed to farm hazards, including chemicals, machinery, and excessive heat.
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 also help to supplement income.
Recommendations
Stakeholders in the agriculture, health and local governance sectors must prioritise targeted interventions that reduce the physical burden on women farmers while safeguarding the health and development of their infants.
One critical step is the establishment of community-based childcare centres in farming communities to free women’s time for productive agricultural work and reduce the need to carry babies to farms. Such facilities would not only enhance women’s productivity but also promote early childhood care and stimulation.
In addition, women farmers require practical ergonomic training on safe lifting, posture, and culturally appropriate baby-carrying techniques to minimise musculoskeletal strain. Improving access to appropriate farm tools and small-scale mechanisation is equally essential to reduce reliance on manual labour, particularly during peak farming seasons when physical demands are highest.
Workplace protections must also be strengthened through the provision of rest breaks, access to potable water, and protective equipment to reduce exposure to heat, chemicals, and other occupational hazards. Beyond these immediate interventions, national and district-level policies should formally recognise women’s unpaid care and agricultural labour in development planning to ensure more inclusive resource allocation.
Health professionals further recommend targeted strengthening and stretching exercises for the lower back and pelvic muscles to help women 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.
Source: Ghana News Agency
