How to Start a Moms Group on Facebook (My Step-by-step Guide)

When I moved to a new town, I was looking for the exact type of “mom group” that I wanted. I learned that it did not exist.

I wanted to join a group of local moms who were all going to give birth during the same season I was. I had found that during my last pregnancy, this helped me to meet my “mom friend group” and find babies the same age as my child.

I’m sure there’s a famous saying for this, but I can’t quite come up with it. I told myself that if I didn’t see what I wanted, I had to go forward and do it myself.

So, I set out to create the mom group that I envisioned: and I needed other people to join it. In this guide, I’ll detail step by step how I did it, and how you can do it, too.

Determine your vision

If a group has a vision, people will be more inclined to join it. My group was simple: a group for pregnant women, and women who had just given birth, due in the “Fall and winter” months of that year.

And as for location, I set the aim for the group to be composed of mostly women in my town, plus women from the neighboring towns, who’d be equally welcome.

The vision was to invite dads as well, because, as I knew how parental leave goes, dads go on parental leave too, and despite not giving birth, sometimes go through a period of looking to connect with other parents (or dads) on leave.

Think of a name for the group

Now, I wasn’t perfect the first time. I gave my group a name on Facebook, and shared it with my friends from the town I used to live in. They pointed out some mistakes.

I had named it “Winter-Fall,” which one said looked like a mistake. So, I switched it to “Fall-Winter.”

I also went through a few iterations of naming it perfectly. I didn’t want to totally copycat the ever-popular mommy-baby group that became such a big part of my life in my first pregnancy: I wanted to start a fresh brand.

So, I went with “[Town] Newborns: Fall-Winter [Year] Babies & Parents.” I didn’t want to make it too mommy-centric, as that could be off-putting to dads (and eventually, some dads joined).

For making your group, think of the specifics you need, as well as ways to keep it general, to attract members.

Invite 1-2 friends to get the momentum going

At the time of making the group, I had just chosen to announce my pregnancy: mainly to friends and family, but soon, I was “out and about” with it. As most people announce their pregnancy at 12 or 13 weeks, and even later, I only knew of friends or acquaintances with due dates a little before mine or around mine — not later.

I invited the one friend in town who I knew qualified for both living in my community, and being due with her child two months before me. I defaulted her into the group.

And that was about… it. My group had two members.

Add a memorable cover photo and description

To make my mom group seem “real,” I added a cover photo. I didn’t want to steal a photo from Google, so I used one of my own kind of “general” or “nondescript” baby photos from my camera roll, of my hands on my stroller when my first child was a newborn. It was enough to spell out “baby group” and enough to keep things authentic.

As for a description, I thought on it, and I started with, “This is a group for expecting parents in our area, during the seasons of fall and winter this year.”

With that, I got into some logistics.

Set some ground rules, and membership questions

What I wanted above all was “security” for the group, and a standard of privacy to make women feel safe in case they wanted to ask sensitive questions regarding babies, health or postpartum topics.

So in the Facebook group settings, I set three membership questions. And, as I was the admin, I got to accept or reject ALL the membership requests.

Still to this day, I am declining member requests when a person does not answer all three membership questions, because in the request, the text I added says that answering all the questions is required (and it is).

Applicants requesting to get into the group have to say which city they live in, when their baby is due or when they had their baby (month is fine) and say “yes” to agreeing to the group rules, which includes being polite, respectful and no self-promotion (etc.).

Publicize it confidently

This is where it gets FUN!

I realized immediately that if I marketed the group toward friends and acquaintances as,

“Hey, I started this group for new moms in town… would you want to join?”

versus:

“Hey! Are you a member of the Newborn Group yet? It’s a new group for moms giving birth this season. Join here at this link!”

… that there was a big difference.

The first seemed sheepish, like I was trying to do something I wasn’t sure of, and the second seemed like there was this thing that people should already know about, and I was helping others to find out about it.

So, what I chose to do, was to publicize the group as if, “you should know about this, but maybe you don’t!”

I am a part of a lot of parent groups, mommy groups and groups that pertain to our child’s daycare (groups for parents online). All these groups were valid places to share my newborn baby and parent group.

I shared in all the local “mom” Facebook groups, and then I shared it in “town” groups like the local “What’s going on in town” group. I shared it in the group for my child’s school and wherever I could think of.

I started joining the mom groups in the neighboring towns, to invite parents there to my group. Would you believe it? I got quite a few membership requests from expecting moms in towns outside mine! Things were really catching on.

Continue to mention the group

I didn’t stop with the steps above. I mentioned the group to a friend’s sister, who was expecting a baby a month after mine, and I mentioned my group when I reconnected with an old friend from high school whose baby was due the same week as mine. Both of them joined.

That’s one of the things I love about being pregnant!

Watch it grow naturally

After all my posting in larger already-established Facebook groups, I sat back, and watched the membership requests came in.

My system was working. My moms group had well over 100 members, and even some dads had joined (mostly the spouses of women who had joined the group!). The group was getting noticed by preschool directors and personnel at local daycares, who wanted to join my group in order to publicize daycare options and start dates and info sessions.

My group seemed like it had been around forever—a true mainstay of mom groups.

Think of the group’s future

This is a hard one. If you created a “due date” mommy group like I did, but you keep inviting people, well: eventually it’s going to have a lot of people whose due dates were originally past the original intention.

I’ll explain.

I started my mommy group to be for women due with babies during fall and winter of a particular year. It then stretched to welcoming women whose due dates fell into March and April, and because by January, women with May and June dates were announcing pregnancies, my group started welcoming everyone who wanted to make new pregnant friends.

So what was I supposed to do? I realized I had about two options:

Turn the group into a “new moms” group
Start a NEW group for women with due dates from March (spring) to end of summer (August/Sept)

If you start a mom group with one intention, and it grows in popularity, you may also have to make the same type of decision. Think about what most people would want, as well as what makes sense.

Why I chose to start my own “mom” group

I learned firsthand in my first pregnancy and postpartum experience that yes: it really does take a village.

I was shocked at the isolation that comes with giving birth and having a newborn. I needed to connect with other women going through the same thing at the exact same time. It’s one of the reasons to join a postpartum support group, and it’s also a reason to make some new friends with a mom group on Facebook!

I was lucky to become part of a group in my previous town that modeled the strength and benefits of a “mom” or “due date” group on Facebook. It changed my life! I knew that for my second pregnancy, I couldn’t just piggyback or mooch. I had to start my own!

I’m glad I did. I enjoy organizing events, getting people to meet one another and help other women have a more positive post-birth experience. I’ve had moms in the group tell me that they’re so appreciative for what I’ve done here with this local mom group, and that makes me so happy.

If you want to be the person who changes lives (it sounds intense, but it is TRUE!), I recommend going through the steps in this list, which mirror exactly what I did to get here.