Friendship After Baby: Making and Keeping Mom Friends

The Ins and Outs of Friendship After Baby

Friendship after baby can be full of new emotions, conversations, and priorities. When you are parenting a newborn, you need different kinds of friends to support you. Making and keeping mom friends almost feels like dating. Below we discuss the ways friendships change after baby and making friends as a new mom.

In the taboo ABCs of postpartum, F is for friendship. Friendship can feel so different after baby.

Maybe you're asking yourself if your friendships are going to change or if it's normal for new friends to come? And how do you even make new friends as a new mom? And what to expect from some of your old friends after baby?

There are so many different parts to this:

-How we make new mom friends

-What kind of friends we need

-How this looks different after baby?

How do we expect our existing friends to show up for us how our friends can help us after baby?

What it's like to have friends with babies themselves and with friends who don't have babies?

Factors that Impact Your Friendship After Baby

So we are looking at all these different changes in friendship after baby. When it comes to your pre-baby friends, there are some questions that you're probably going to ask yoursel

Do you still have common interests?

Are you able to align your schedules?

Are you able to enter some of the places that you overlap to maybe that was your work friends, or you're going out friends or a hobby friends?

And do you maybe have the same kind of approach and values and styles?

And when you become a mom, you're likely going to make new friends. This might be because your children are the same age or maybe you're running in a similar circle. Maybe it's a playgroup, maybe it's a hobby group, maybe it is work or a daycare setting, you might be making a new friend, because you have a similar parenting style. And maybe because you have some common interests.

Loneliness as a New Mom

I hear from a lot of moms that they didn't expect it to feel this lonely, you feel like you're the only one struggling with something. Maybe you're trying to keep up with so much and there are all these different changes. Friendships after a baby can be more difficult, but they're also still extremely important. I encourage my mom clients to ask themselves a few things.

There are a lot of different kinds of friends that we need when we're new moms. And I want to give you a couple examples of those.

Examples of Mom Friend Types After Baby

The Listener Mom Friend

The person that you can call up whenever, however, you need to show up and they're just going to listen, you may need the wisdom friend, this is the person who probably already has kids. Maybe they're a little older or they are in a stage that's a few months or years ahead and they can be the person to help you gain that wisdom and feel comfortable and confident.

The Keep It Real Mom Friend

You need that keep it real friend, the friend that you can talk to about anything, nothing's off the table. Nothing is too taboo

The Nurturing Mom Friend

You need the nurturer friend. This is the person you can turn to when you just feel heavy and hard and you need someone to wrap you up in some love and encouragement and be nurtured.

The Advocate Mom Friend

You need the advocate friends, that friend who is going to help you to find your voice and use your voice and be your own advocate.

The Cheerleader Mom Friend

You need the cheerleader, the one who reminds you that even when it's really hard, you can do this.

The Fun Mom Friend

The fun mom friend is the one who can remind you to get out and let go of the stress and have fun. You need her so that you can relax and lean into fun!

The Things in Common Mom Friend

It's great to have the friend with whom you have a lot in common. Perhaps it's the stage of your baby, perhaps it is your work or other hobby. The friend with things in common helps you stay grounded and normalize your experiences.