When I first found out I was pregnant, I started searching the internet for experiences - words of wisdom - from other women farmers who had successfully maintained their businesses while navigating this whole being pregnant thing.

I wanted to know what I was getting into. I had so many questions that just didn’t apply to women who sit down for the majority of their work day, in front of a computer in offices. How long did they work in the field? What were they harvesting? How did their tasks change through the months and trimesters? What effects did they feel? What the heck did they wear for maternity clothes? Did their feet swell up after working markets or tromping around the field all day? Did they need better shoes?

But after countless hours of searching online - I say countless, because I did not count - I wound up with only 1 relevant blog post. The majority of advice pertaining to farming pregnant was in regards to dairy farming - which is fantastic if you’re a pregnant dairy farmer, but not so much if you grow vegetables.

This seemed crazy to me, because I see a lot of successful female farmers with children, and I know that the knowledge was out there.

I eventually found the answers to my questions, both through talking to farm moms about their experiences and through personal trial and error. Yes, your feet do swell up if you’re standing while working at a market all day and 25 weeks pregnant. But the biggest support network I found was through Instagram, this community has so much knowledge and it was a fantastic place to ask questions and get a plethora of answers.

So I’m here to share my journey. Everyone is different, this isn’t the right or wrong way to do anything, I’m just speaking to what I know from my personal experiences - incase someone else is in the situation I was in, looking for experiences from a pregnant farmer.

Pregnant & Farming