A letter from our founder: Why I built ama

When I first started thinking seriously about becoming a mother on my own, I did what most women do.

I started researching.

I wanted answers. I wanted to picture what this path could actually look like. Most of all, I wanted to hear from women who had already walked it.

What I found instead was scattered. A Facebook group here. A blog there. Reddit threads at 2am. Pieces of a much bigger conversation, never in one place. Never intimate. Never the kind of space where you could ask the questions actually sitting on your chest.

And those questions are big.

*How do I know if this is the right decision?*

*Will I be enough?*

*How do I even begin?*

*What if I'm the only one?*

Living in Switzerland, where becoming a single mother by choice is still illegal, those questions felt even heavier. I felt like a unicorn — like I was the only woman in the world carrying this exact mix of fear, longing, and hope.

But I wasn't. Not even close.

Inside those scattered Facebook groups, I kept seeing the same words, written by different women: *I feel alone. No one around me really understands. I wish there was more honesty. More connection. More support.*

I knew that feeling. I was living inside it too.

The first version

For the past decade, much of my work has been in social media — building and understanding digital communities, watching how powerful they can be when they're built with care.

So I built a first version. The SMBC App. A small first step toward the space I wished existed.

But it wasn't quite right, and the women using it told me so. It felt transactional. Too surface. Too much like a dating app — photos, swiping, matching.

They were right. What women in this moment of their lives need isn't another app to perform on.

They need a place to land.

Then I became a mother

And everything changed.

Motherhood gave me an entirely new understanding of what support actually means — not only before, but during pregnancy, after birth, and through all the invisible transitions no one prepares you for.

The questions don't stop when the baby arrives. They multiply. And the need for honest, present, unjudging support only grows.

ama. was born out of all of that. The questions. The loneliness. The longing for real conversations. The need for practical guidance. The quiet wish to feel understood.

And out of one belief I hold very deeply:

No woman should ever feel pressured to settle because time is running out.

I have watched too many women make some of the biggest decisions of their lives from fear. Settling into relationships because their fertility timeline felt louder than their intuition. And too often, that fear-driven choice unraveled later — into unhappiness, divorce, resentment, painful custody battles.

I wasn't willing to build my future from fear.

So instead of waiting for the "right person," I chose the deepest love I already knew I wanted: becoming a mother.

It became the best decision of my life. I could never have imagined motherhood would feel this profound.

ama. is the evolution of that journey.

A new era. A softer, more honest space. Not only for single mothers by choice, but for women in every stage — thinking, trying, pregnant, mothering, questioning, rebuilding.

A place to connect. To ask. To learn. To feel held.

I want ama. to feel like comfort. Like peace of mind. Like walking into a room where you don't have to explain yourself. Like a hug from a good friend.

Because whatever stage you're in, whatever path you're walking — you deserve that.

And you don't have to do it alone.

*— Melanie, founder of ama.*