Between 14% and 44% of new mothers suffer from postpartum depression (PPD) in Nigeria today, particularly in the north. Despite the staggering figures, nearly half of all mothers who experience postpartum depression remain undiagnosed, thanks to cultural norms and medical limitations.
Patience Amos is familiar with many of these women. As a public-health expert, she has interacted with new nursing mothers, many of whom feel lost, misunderstood, or even invisible after childbirth.
“Some of these women are even praised for being strong because they seem to hold it together,” she says. “But what’s happening inside them is very different.”
Postpartum depression, which globally affects about 10–15% of mothers each year, often begins within the first six weeks after childbirth. In some cases, symptoms can last from three to six months and even longer without intervention.
A quarter of women with untreated PPD still indicated symptoms of depression three years after childbirth. Awareness of PPD is abysmally low in many rural Nigerian communities, where it’s typically dismissed as part of the natural difficulty with motherhood.
This misleading representation has kept diagnosis–and treatment–of the condition low. Despite evidence that 80% of women with PPD recover fully with treatment, stigma continues to prevent many from seeking help.
In January 2025, together with her husband, Amos Akaso, Patience founded Momandme Foundation, a nonprofit she founded together with her husband, Amos Akaso.
Born and raised in Gombe State, Patience grew up shadowing her mother, a nutritionist, through hospital corridors, where she observed tiny babies being weighed, new mothers counselled, and meal regimens planned out. These early experiences laid the foundation for her lifelong commitment to maternal health.
After completing her studies in 2022 at Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University in Ukraine, Patience moved to the UK to study at the University of Wolverhampton, where she bagged a master’s in public health in 2024.
She and a friend assembled African women in the diaspora under a project called Substantial Woman. “It wasn’t a formal project,” she recalls, “It was a space where we could talk to women about life, their value, their health, and their voices.”
Around the same time, she examined the cultural barriers hampering proper diagnosis of postpartum depression among African women. What she found was baffling. A woman who admits to struggling after childbirth is too often seen not as someone who needs help but as someone who is failing at motherhood.
This discovery inspired her to start the Momandme Foundation upon returning to Nigeria. “I realised I couldn’t wait for someone to hand me a path. I had to create it,” she explains.
Focused on maternal and child health in Africa, the foundation provides a broad range of maternal and child health services, including antenatal care education and child nutrition.
In several of its host communities, the foundation’s intervention is also tailored to women plagued with financial woes, addressing their immediate needs and empowering them for sustainability.
In rural Gombe and Jos, the foundation’s “Catch Them Young” campaign aims to tackle the complex layers of maternal health challenges. One particularly haunting case was a mother who had lost five children before their first birthday.
When she came to the foundation with her sixth child, she was already emotionally withdrawn and physically exhausted. “It wasn’t just malnutrition we were dealing with,” Patience explains. “This woman had given up. There was grief, hopelessness, and the deep kind of silence that you only see in people who have stopped expecting joy.”
She draws on her medical background in dealing with the many different layers of maternal health. Managing the foundation has thrown her into extensive fieldwork in which she comes face-to-face with the everyday realities of living with PPD.
Over the years, Patience has worked with several related organisations, including the Young Women’s Christian Association and a Black mental health charity in the UK, gaining vital experience in community-based health models and culturally sensitive healthcare delivery.
This wealth of experience exposed her to deeper, structural problems that create serious health risks for women. It also marked a turning point, encouraging her to merge her passion for women’s empowerment with her medical and public health training.
Patience understands that the cultural fabric of Nigerian communities can be both protective and restrictive. Traditions like “omugwo” and “olojojo omo,” where a woman’s mother or mother-in-law stays with her for weeks after delivery, can provide crucial emotional support.
But these same traditions can also reinforce silence. “Many women feel they must perform strength,” Patience says. “They can’t say they’re tired, or scared, or detached from their child. They think it means they’re weak, ungrateful, or failing.”
Patience’s commitment extends beyond grassroots work. She is developing “Lura,”a culturally grounded digital platform designed to offer reproductive and mental health support for African women. Unlike many Western Femtech tools, Lura aims to reflect the unique realities of African motherhood.
“We need a platform that speaks our language, not just linguistically, but culturally. One who understands what it means to be a mother here,” she says.
Funding remains a challenge, with much of the foundation’s work currently sustained by small donations and personal contributions. But she remains undeterred.
“We now have the track record, the data, the evidence. We’re ready to scale and that means actively pursuing grants and partnerships.”
Beyond her healthcare advocacy, Patience is also a writer. She published her first book, Tears in Destiny, at just sixteen, followed by Chasing After the Wind at nineteen.
Her early works explore themes of struggle and resilience, echoing the challenges she now addresses in her professional life.
For Patience Amos, the path to recovery for thousands of women begins with being seen and heard.
Postpartum depression (PPD) affects 14% to 44% of new mothers in Nigeria, with many going undiagnosed due to cultural and medical barriers. Patience Amos, a public-health expert, founded the Momandme Foundation to address these issues after realizing the cultural stigma surrounding PPD during her studies and experiences in Nigeria and abroad. The foundation offers maternal and child health services, including education and support for financial struggles.
Patience's commitment extends to creating tailored support systems, such as the digital platform "Lura," aimed at providing reproductive and mental health support specifically for African women. Her foundation's work is primarily funded through donations and personal contributions, yet she is determined to expand through grants and partnerships. Additionally, Patience is an accomplished author, with her early works paralleling the themes of struggle and resilience that she addresses in maternal health. Her approach emphasizes the importance of visibility and voice for affected women.
