During my first pregnancy, I carried on with my “regular life” and had a bit of trouble believing my life would change drastically once I had a baby. I surrounded myself with my friends, continued all my hobbies and tried to introduce as little shock to my life as possible.

Then I had my first child. I realized I had very few friends who had given birth recently. Most had older kids, toddlers, or older babies. They already had mom friends: from day care, from the playground and from their small children’s big social lives.

I realized that I should’ve made more pregnant friends, while I was pregnant. Why is this such a hard thing to do?

In this list, get ideas of how to make new friends who are also pregnant while you are. Pregnant friends are really important, because once you give birth, you become “Mom friends!” Read on, to see.

Join a mommy group

It sounds lame, but seriously, do it. Join a mommy group. I didn’t know what a gigantic part of my life all my “mommy groups” would be.

And don’t get me wrong: these “mommy groups” come in a lot of different flavors. I’ll name just a few types of mom groups I can think of:

  • Facebook groups for “all parents” in your area
  • Facebook groups for new moms or “young moms” nearby
  • “Due date” Facebook groups for “New moms in [year]” or even “Fall-Winter” or “Spring-Summer” Babies, getting really specific!
  • A new mom support group
  • A group of friends, who are all due with babies around the same time

If this sounds vague, it is. Or, if this sounds specific and helpful, that’s because it is. In my second pregnancy, I decided to join them all: every flavor of mom groups out there. I joined groups for moms in my town, in the neighboring towns, groups on Facebook and groups on Whatsapp. I even figured out how to start my own mommy group when one didn’t exist.

In joining mom groups, you can usually meet other pregnant moms, and make friends. You may have to do some asking! I’ll get into that, with all my personal experience, in this list.

Use a neighborhood or town group to network

When I lived in Brooklyn, I didn’t know of any “newborns” Facebook groups, or groups specific to new moms, so I took matters into my own hands. I posted in a larger “moms/parents” Facebook group for my area of Brooklyn (which probably had several hundreds of thousands of people) and wrote, “Is anyone else expecting in the next few months? I’d love to meet and hang out.”

I got a few replies. Yes, other pregnant women really wanted to make new friends!

I wound up going out for mocktails (this is a true story!) with a woman with whom I actually had a few friends common (college friends and etc.). We picked a bar with a proper mocktail menu that was walking distance to both our apartments, and sat down to connect over first pregnancy topics like baby prep and maternity clothes.

I had done it: I had made a new friend out of thin air during pregnancy!

Ask around friends and family

Ask friends and family members if they know anyone who’s pregnant when you are. It doesn’t even have to be someone in your area; you could have a friend who lives across the country, but may be due the same month. You could have a lot in common, pregnancy-wise!

Or, follow up with anyone in your circles who says, “So-and-so is pregnant.” Have them stop right there. Ask who’s pregnant, how they know them and if you could get in touch with them, to make a new pregnant buddy.

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My mom is always talking about her friends’ daughters who are pregnant while I’m also pregnant. Sometimes it’s old news, or sometimes, it’s new news to me, and I’m happy to get in touch (or get BACK in touch) to start a new friendship.

Take a prenatal yoga class

I found that going in person to a prenatal yoga class in a studio is WAY more social than doing prenatal yoga on YouTube at home! I know women who have met friends at prenatal yoga classes at local studios, because you get to see the same women every week and often, there are friendly introductions before class starts.

Here’s the mistake I made, though: in my second trimester, I used ClassPass to alternate between two yoga studios that were both equidistant from my NYC apartment. Because I didn’t fully “commit” to one or the other, I never truly was able to connect with any other pregnant moms.

When we chose to move to the suburbs in my 6th month of pregnancy, I took a weekly prenatal yoga class in the neighboring town. I started attending religiously every week until I gave birth. I made some buddies with similar due dates, and we followed up with each other after we had given birth! Really sweet. <3

Helpful Tip

If your town or neighborhood doesn’t have a yoga studio offering prenatal yoga, VENTURE FURTHER. Taking prenatal yoga in person is worth it, because of the pregnant women who will surround you and the yoga instructor who will support you. Plus, chances are that every woman is there to make other pregnant friends, so embrace the opportunity!

Try an app like Peanut

While I have not personally used Peanut (because the other ways in this list worked so well for me, both the first and second time around!), a lot of moms recommend it.

What’s Peanut? Basically, it is an app like a dating app, but for moms and pregnant moms. You can get “matches” of other women who are pregnant like you are, and decide to meet. You may find women with due dates close to yours, and that can be really helpful as you navigate the weeks of pregnancy together toward the finish line.

Why would you want to use Peanut? Well, for some women, the other options and ideas in this list simply aren’t available. There may be no prenatal yoga classes nearby, no birth classes nearby or no mom groups on Facebook that resonate with them.

Just like with online dating, there is no harm in giving it a real shot!

Take an in-person birth or baby prep class

While I chose to take my birth class online, I wasn’t trying to meet anyone. Maybe I should have considered that taking any type of in-person class is a great way to meet other pregnant women whose pregnancies even run on the same timeline.

Lots of hospitals and birthing centers these days offer in-person birth, labor, delivery, breastfeeding and infant CPR classes. They’re great to do with your spouse, and they’re incredibly helpful and informative so that you go into parenthood with a little bit of knowledge!

You never know: you may meet a friend with a similar due date, and keep in touch, all the way through having your babies and hanging out for playdates or walks.

A perinatal (prenatal/postnatal) support group

I’ve talked at length in articles like reasons to join a postpartum support group about how my support group helped me out. For some women, support groups are a place to start getting support even before you give birth (prenatal phase during pregnancy).

In my postpartum support group, every now and then there have been women who find out about the group and drop in to join (virtually, on Zoom) in their later months of pregnancy. They are welcome there! They can talk about what they are feeling, and connect with other moms, who may also be pregnant, or recently postpartum.

Often, we’re able to share our phone numbers or email addresses, and connect outside the support group so that we could become “real life friends.” There are also prenatal support groups specifically, so that pregnant women can get support before birth. Try a website like The Motherhood Center to see just one of these outlets.

Use Meetup

I used Meetup when I lived in NYC, just looking for things to do. I wound up using the website and the app after my first pregnancy, as my “New babies” meetup info was hosted there (and I became the host! That was a GREAT way to meet new moms!).

What I later learned is that Meetup has a meetup for everyone. Even if you want to just learn about new mom meetups, you can check out the page for First Time Pregnant Moms! A page like this one lists meetup events in major cities across the US, so that’s really exciting for pregnant women across America.

Reconnect with old friends

I’ve never been a stranger to reconnecting with old friends. In fact, it’s one of my favorite things to do, in a way.

Because of social media, it’s more in-your-face than ever before to find out who’s expecting, via when your friends announce their pregnancy on Instagram. But nevertheless, for old high school or college friends to whom I haven’t “really” spoken in a decade or two, I’ve reached out to say, “Congrats, when are you due?” and find out that our due dates are a week part.

That has been really cool, to connect over something in adulthood, whereas maybe we had very little in common by the end of high school and into college. But parenthood can bring us together, whether it is our first, second or third child.

Use online forums or communities in a pregnancy app

This is probably my least-recommended way of meeting other pregnant friends, BUT if you live in an isolated area, or if you’ve just moved somewhere new, or even if you’re just plain shy, meeting pregnant women online to make pregnant friends is valid for you.

I came across plenty of online forums for pregnant women, mostly when I’d Google a question, like, “Why does pregnancy nausea go away?” (just as an example). I’ve come across pregnancy forums on Reddit (not really a community, but mainly a forum), Baby Center and The Bump. Here are just a few, where you can interact with other pregnant moms, ask questions, get your questions answered and even make connections:

I do admit it is a bit difficult to find these. If you’re searching “mom groups online,” like I have, you mostly get search results for support groups for new moms or pregnant moms. That may not be what you want; you might just want to connect in an online community to make some online friends.

Conclusion

Overall, it is a challenge to meet other pregnant friends. That’s why you’re reading this list! I say it’s a challenge because being pregnant can feel isolating, and also is that in-between phase, after you’re just a “regular person” and before you’re a “mom with a baby.”

And when you’re a mom with a baby, it’s actually easier to meet new mom friends. I say that because there are loads of ways to get out of the house and go to play groups or baby classes when your baby is out of the newborn phase, and that will help YOU make friends, too.

If you’re having trouble feeling connected during pregnancy, I’ll say this: don’t worry. Pregnancy “only” lasts 40 weeks (maybe 42 weeks at most), and after that, you’ll start a new life as a mom, with lots of outlets for getting social with your new baby.