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. It is time to feel understood and at home.
Our weekly groups are closed groups
Our 8-week mom*-to-mom* groups run as closed groups. The same people meet each week for the whole series, and that is what lets trust build and a real community form. When you register, you are signing up for the full duration, and you are holding a seat in a small circle.
A group is a group when the group shows up. Each person shapes the dynamic, so your place matters from the first week to the last.
We know life with children is unpredictable. If something comes up and you cannot make a session, please let us know as early as you can. A booked place that stays empty is a place another parent could have taken, and when too many seats sit empty we have to cancel the group for everyone. A short message means we can offer your spot to someone waiting for it.
Show up as you are, when you can, how you can. All we ask is that you tell us if your plans change, so the group can hold together for everyone in it.
Autumn 2026
- 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
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.