Ogechi Laura Amajuoyi has publicly shared her experience of feeling like a 'baby-making machine' in her marriage, detailing how she carried all three of her pregnancies without support from her husband or his family. In a Facebook post, she narrated meeting her husband in February 2016 and becoming pregnant by May 2016, unaware of his age or his previous marriage and divorce.
Early Marriage and Unsupported Pregnancies
Amajuoyi married soon after meeting her husband and began giving birth while still a university student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). She claims she carried all three pregnancies alone, with little or no support from her children's father and his family. Her first pregnancy occurred while she was a student, and she credited her mother for preventing her from dropping out.
Her second pregnancy came during her final months at UNN in 2018 and during her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) preparations, a compulsory program for Nigerian graduates. Her third pregnancy was discovered the morning after she slept outside, locked out of her home following a fight with her husband.
Lack of Husband's Presence During Deliveries
Amajuoyi described how no husband rubbed her feet or massaged her tummy during any of her pregnancies. For the first two deliveries, her husband was technically present at the government hospital in Parklane, Enugu, but he was not allowed to stay overnight in the ward. She recalled wishing her husband had cared enough to stay, as another man did for the mother of his child, but hers was in a hurry to leave.
After the births, her husband would go meet his friends and brag about his wife giving birth, while she handled the aftermath alone. She noted that some men stayed by their wives' sides through the night with their newborns, but that was not her story.
Conflict Over Naming Children
Amajuoyi also expressed frustration over her ex-mother-in-law's insistence on naming all her children, which she felt was an entitlement rather than a request. The last baby was named Ifunanya, meaning 'love' in Igbo, a name that also belongs to another woman her ex-husband was involved with in New Haven, Enugu. When she complained about the affair, her mother-in-law responded with a story about her own husband's infidelity, which Amajuoyi said normalized the behavior.
She concluded that women who absorb the failures of irresponsible men raise the next version of it, as sons learn what their fathers got away with, and mothers expect new wives to carry the same weight. She stated she never believed a toxic two-parent household is better for a child than a peaceful one-parent household, and that a child needs at least one parent who isn't teaching them what to accept.
