Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Harvest Public Media is a reporting collaboration focused on issues of food, fuel and field. Based at KCUR in Kansas City, Harvest covers these agriculture-related topics through an expanding network of reporters and partner stations throughout the Midwest.Most Harvest Public Media stories begin with radio- regular reports are aired on member stations in the Midwest. But Harvest also explores issues through online analyses, television documentaries and features, podcasts, photography, video, blogs and social networking. They are committed to the highest journalistic standards. Click here to read their ethics standards.Harvest Public Media was launched in 2010 with the support of a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Today, the collaboration is supported by CPB, the partner stations, and contributions from underwriters and individuals.Tri States Public Radio is an associate partner of Harvest Public Media. You can play an important role in helping Harvest Public Media and Tri States Public Radio improve our coverage of food, field and fuel issues by joining the Harvest Network.

Pregnancy On The Farm Comes With Its Own Set Of Risks

Dr. Bailey Lammers and her vet tech Sadie Kalin are the the only woman-led livestock veterinarian team in their community.
Christina Stella
/
Harvest Public Media
Dr. Bailey Lammers and her vet tech Sadie Kalin are the the only woman-led livestock veterinarian team in their community.

In the fall, livestock veterinarian Dr. Bailey Lammers is often busy with vaccinating calves and helping wean them from their mothers.

A herd of auburn cattle greeted her at the barn gate during one of her house calls in northeastern Nebraska, peering from behind the dirt-caked bars. Lammers and her technician Sadie Kalin pulled equipment from tackleboxes in the back of Lammers’ truck.  

Harvest Public Media's Christina Stella finds out what expectant mothers face when on the farm.

“These ones are a little spicy,” she said as she secured a cow in a headlock gate. “They get a little more ramped up when they’re by themselves.”

When Lammers decided to become a mother herself, she wasn’t sure how the pregnancy would impact her work life or how easily her doctor would be able to discuss potential hazards.

“That’s probably why I waited to have a child,” she said. 

Dwindling access to reproductive care has been an issue in rural communities for years: Since 2010, 134 rural hospitals in the U.S. have shut down their obstetrics units, and 18 have closed entirely. That left less than half of rural hospitals providing reproductive care.

The closures are coming at a time when at least one woman now works at more than half of America’s farms — a 27% increase according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent census (which didn’t ask whether people were in operations vs. in the field). The category also doesn’t include people like Lammers, who work on the front lines of agriculture but aren’t technically producers.

Advocates say women are more comfortable asserting their roles in farm operations than ever, which is why they believe health care providers need to make sure women have access to safety information when it comes to things like pesticides and working with livestock.

Sadie Kalin marks a heifer in northeastern Nebraska before she is vaccinated for Brucellosis.
Credit Christina Stella / Harvest Public Media
/
Harvest Public Media
Sadie Kalin marks a heifer in northeastern Nebraska before she is vaccinated for Brucellosis.

“Our agriculture is a 24/7-type job. Our recreational life, our work life, our family life is all woven into agriculture. And so it's important that these females understand their risks,” said Linda Emmanuel, a community health nurse with Agrisafe. The nonprofit offers safety and health training services to people working in agriculture. She’s also Lammers’ aunt.

Conversations about the health risks of working with agricultural chemicals are gaining momentum. More producers than everare using them in production, but some studies have linked certain chemical exposures with lowered fertility among women, birth defects and miscarriage.  

But Emmanuel said exposures are hard to fully understand, because many studies use animal subjects instead of people — which is common due to ethical research concerns — and can’t promise it’ll be applicable for humans.

“Having that solid link is still difficult,” she said.

Working with livestock while pregnant can also be a concern. Some hormones for livestock can trigger abortions, so getting accidently stuck with a needle can be disastrous. Plus, animals carry bacteria and zoonotic illnesses that can be unsafe for human mothers and their fetuses.

Dr. Bailey Lammers says small livestock operations pose more safety concerns than larger shops: She and Kalin often has to wrangle cattle herself.
Credit Christina Stella / Harvest Public Media
/
Harvest Public Media
Dr. Bailey Lammers says small livestock operations pose more safety concerns than larger shops: She and Kalin often has to wrangle cattle herself.

When Lammers was pregnant, she got a call about a heifer who had died after aborting one of her calves. She needed to perform an autopsy on the cow to diagnose the problem, which she did, though she was nervous.

“And I accidentally had nicked part of its stomach, and the stomach, kind of, (for) lack of a better word, blew up in my face,” Lammers said. “And so I was exposed to whatever was in there.”

A sample tested positive for Campylobacter, a bacteria commonly responsible for food poisoning. It’s also known to cause pregnancy complications, and even trigger miscarriages.

Lammers told her OB-GYN what happened. But her doctor didn’t know whether she was in danger, because her doctor wasn’t trained for livestock exposure.

“It's not a really common thing to say, ‘Hey, I blew up a rumen and have cow all over my face, here’s the bacteria it has. What do you think?’ I mean, it's not something they deal with every day,” Lammers said.

But Lammers and other women in agriculture are a minority within a minority workforce. She was happy to have any doctor to call. Lammers and Kalin drove to South Dakota to see an OB-GYN.

Dr. Bailey Lammers prepares to measure the size of a heifer's pelvis.
Credit Christina Stella / Harvest Public Media
/
Harvest Public Media
Dr. Bailey Lammers prepares to measure the size of a heifer's pelvis.

When it became clear to Lammers there was nobody nearby to give a second opinion, she called her aunt.   

“We were able to have access to an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, who is a veterinarian, as well as works in the public health realm,” Emmanuel said.

In the end, Lammers was OK, but Emmanuel said the Agrisafe network of experts was crucial for getting evidence-based reassurance.

The next step for ag workers and health care professionals needs to be an institutional one, Emmanuel said, baking teaching safety practices into doctors’ offices and degree programs.

“I questioned Bailey about her education when she was in veterinary school,” Emmanuel said. “I said, ‘Did they talk to you about the exposures and how to protect yourself?’ She said, ‘Not really.’”

Emmanuel also sees how the significant health care barriers for rural workers impacts providers: Doctors are often too burdened to pursue extra training in agriculture health.

“(But) I wish they would just turn to us, turn to those centers, turn to research to help them understand,” she added.

Lammers is less nervous should she decide to get pregnant again. She said she plans to wear more protective equipment, and ask for help when she needs it, instead of pushing through every risky situation.

“I mean, I might look a little silly, but I'll just explain what happened the last time,” she said. “I think they'll be fine,”

For her, self-advocating is part of normalizing the next generation of women working in the field: “We can stay safe.”

Follow Christina on Twitter: @c_c_stella

Copyright 2019 Harvest Public Media

Christina Stella