Research consistently shows that maternal postpartum depression can have a serious effect on mother-baby interactions, adversely affecting the child’s cognitive, social, behavioral, and emotional development. During Amplify’s Early Childhood Development Challenge, Childhood Neuropsychiatric Disorders Initiatives (CNDI) proposed finding and treating postpartum depression in Nigeria in a more systematic way—by tacking it onto the country’s incredibly successful and widespread infant vaccination program. 

Over 80% of women bring their children to the government vaccination program, making it the ideal venue to surface and treat a mother’s latent depression.

After attending Amplify’s human-centered design bootcamp, CNDI spent three months prototyping the optimal patient experience. Their initial prototypes have focused on three key moments in the patient journey: developing an efficient and unintimidating screening process, delivering a diagnosis in a way that mitigates stigma and shame, and finding the right treatment environment.

In the first three months, CNDI surfaced 50 cases of postpartum depression through their intervention—a major feat in a country where it’s rarely diagnosed. According to CNDI founder Muideen Bakare, using IDEO.org’s human-centered design methodology has helped his team become more open to possibilities when designing new programs. CNDI is piloting its intervention at a larger scale in 2016.