Online · 8-Week Closed Group · Quarterly

8 Week Intensive: An Online Community for Early Motherhood*

Facilitated by Ruth Bönisch.

8-week online series, meeting Wednesday evenings 8-9pm. Runs quarterly.

Open to mothers* of babies up to around 24 months old.

The first few months with a new baby can be overwhelming and exhausting for anyone. Doing it away from home and in a foreign language and system is even harder.

If you are an English-speaking mom*, away from home and looking for connection and community during those fragile first months with your baby, this group is for you! This online peer-to-peer support group will be the same friendly faces, one evening per week, for 8 weeks - time to feel understood and at home.

Upcoming sessions

Summer & Autumn 2026

  • Summer: May 20 - July 8 (Wednesdays)
  • Autumn: September 30 - November 18 (Wednesdays)
  • Time: 20:00 - 21:00 CET
  • Where: Online
  • Language: English
  • Format: 8-week closed group (same participants each week)
  • Contact: mom-to-mom@afloatgermany.org
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Your facilitator

Ruth Bönisch

I moved, heavily pregnant, from Hong Kong to the Odenwald in 2019 and was unprepared for what postpartum would feel like in a new country and during Covid. In 2024 I welcomed a second baby, (this time thinking I was more prepared!), but we were met with a congenital heart defect that would require lengthy hospital stays and major surgery. This latest chapter of motherhood away from home has been isolating at times, and yet I was struck by how many of the people looking back at me across wards and waiting rooms were also navigating this away from home and not in their mother-tongue.

Afloat has been the 'red thread' woven through this season - a leaflet about one of it's first groups was lovingly pressed into my hand back in 2019 and I was honoured to facilitate the Heidelberg In-Person group a while ago. After a break from facilitating (during which I loved attending the online groups as a participant again) I am so glad to now be able to volunteer with this wonderful community again!

My professional background is in classical music and I recently qualified as a yoga teacher with further training in pre and post natal yoga. I look forward to meeting you!

Please note that this group is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment by a psychotherapist or psychiatrist. We are a peer to peer support group and a hub to connect you with health care professionals and other service providers around pregnancy and parenthood*. We do not handle psychiatric emergencies.