LANSING – “When they deported my husband, I was 5 months pregnant and working. So I worked until my seventh month of pregnancy.”

That’s what a woman told researchers investigating the conditions of farmworkers in Michigan.

The study, which is a part of wider research called the Michigan Farmworker Project, was developed to better understand the conditions of farmworkers and promote policy changes.

It’s a first-of-its-kind study that uses interviews with women who make up one-third of farmworkers in the state, according to University of Michigan epidemiology professor Alexis Handal, an author of the study.

It appeared in the American Journal of Community Psychology.

Researchers interviewed 56 participants from four counties with a large number of agricultural workers. Twenty were women, most Spanish-speaking. Their average incomes were low, around $22,000 a year.

The researchers did not identify the counties.

“We found that farmworkers often face not just precarious, but exploitative working conditions,” Handal said.

“These conditions include unpredictable work schedules, wage theft, coercion and even violations of basic human rights, such as lack of access to drinking water or safe working environments,” she said.

The study found common working conditions among all of the women interviewed.

These included gender discrimination, sexual harassment, lack of access to feminine hygiene products, working while pregnant and difficulty maintaining a family.

Christine Sauve, a policy, engagement and communications manager at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, said complaints identified in the study are all too common. The center is based in Ypsilanti with offices in Detroit, Lansing, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids.

“This research highlights so many of the complaints we hear from our female farmworker clients – concerns about discrimination, sexual harassment, dangerous workplace conditions and lack of access to basic health and safety measures, including soap and bathrooms,” Sauvé said.

The study described a situation in which a woman farmworker had to work 12 hours a day but was allowed only one 15-minute break during her shift, and was unable to use the bathroom.

Urinary tract infections are common as well, as other women reported being reluctant to use the bathrooms in fear of risking their job.

The study found that most female participants had at one time worked while pregnant.

Many tried to hide their pregnancy lest they lose their jobs. Others put themselves in danger of exposure to pesticides and strenuous work while pregnant.

The study detailed this unnamed seasonal worker’s experience:

“They give you the same tasks. It’s just that, well, I never told the boss, ‘Oh I’m pregnant, I can’t do this’ because in the second pregnancy, supposedly they had said they weren’t going to give work to pregnant women anymore.'”

“And they hadn’t noticed, so I said, ‘Oh, well, I won’t tell them I’m pregnant now,'” according to the study.

Kara Moberg is the managing attorney at the Kalamazoo-based Farmworker Legal Services and has represented women who have described discrimination and sexual harassment.

“We also assisted a woman who had applied for a position and then was denied employment because the employer had told her that he couldn’t protect her and what might happen to her in the field,” Moberg said.

The study calls for better shielding of farmworkers who report problems from retaliation and stricter guidelines to protect female farmworkers.

“We will continue to educate workers of their legal rights and the options they have for enforcing them,” Moberg said.