This archive report was first published on 11 May 2021.
On Mother's Day, May 9, 2021, Wilbroda, a Kenyan actress and radio presenter, took to social media to share her personal struggles with postpartum depression and miscarriage.
Wilbroda, famously known as Jacqueline Nyaminde, revealed that she still thinks about her unborn child who would have been eight years old today.
She recounted how she unknowingly slipped into postpartum depression following the birth of her son in 2010. In a heartfelt post, she wrote, “On the 16th of July, 2010, I became a mother to a beautiful baby boy. It was birth by C-section and my friends were there with me from the moment I got into theatre up until when the surgery was done.”
However, four days later, Wilbroda started experiencing feelings of sadness, anxiety, and hollowness, which she later discovered was postpartum depression. She wrote, “I was extremely sad…There was this hollowness that would show up, especially in the evenings. I’d experience such anxiety and just start crying. I didn’t understand it, I’d never heard of it. It just didn’t feel right. I mean I was supposed to be happy. I had just been blessed with the most precious gift. I hated that feeling. I hated evenings. I told nobody about it. It just slowly slipped away…Only later did I get to know that what I went through was called Postpartum Depression,” she wrote.
Wilbroda also shared her experience of miscarriage in 2013, when she was convinced she was carrying a girl and had named her Atis. She lost the pregnancy at three months and had to undergo an evacuation two days later.
Concluding her post, Wilbroda dedicated it to all mothers who have been through struggles, writing, “On this special Mother’s Day, I dedicate my post to all you special women. Mothers who have been through one struggle or another. Mothers who don’t understand it all. You’ll get the hang of it. Hang in there. You are doing Great. You are Phenomenal. You are a Mother and God’s No.1 helper. Happy Mother’s Day!”
