What Are Peer Support Groups?

Pregnancy peer groups are groups of women whose babies are due around the same time. Mothers come from all continents and use English and Dutch as common languages. Mothers-to-be are likely to experience similar issues when in the same trimester and can support one another by sharing emotions and tips. 

These groups help create friendship (between Delft mothers-to-be) that would last after the birth of their babies. The first few months of the life of their newborns can be a vulnerable time for mothers. A local support network can ease this phase. Contact us if you are the mother of a baby and are looking for friends.

How Does Delft MaMa Organize Peer Support Groups?

Meeting others and keeping contact with them is not easy in practice in Delft.  Are you working during the week and would like to meet on a weekend? We are looking for  volunteers to coordinate weekend meetings. Every week that we do not have a Wednesday meeting, we hope to hold a Saturday afternoon group at someone's home. We encourage mothers-to-be not to wait till their last trimesters to join a peer group. Please go to the frontpage of the site, look to the right at the Member login section under our sponsors' logos. Click on "Nog geen account?" and you will get access to a registration form.

Are you looking for mothers raising their children ( 1 to 4) in languages other than English (including Dutch)?  We currently have ongoing groups where English and French are the contact language. Mothers all come from different countries. We have a network of local playgroups in German, Italian and Japanese.

Why Does the Friendship of Other Women Lower Stress Levels of All Women, Including Expecting Mothers?

A 2000 UCLA study on friendship among women concluded that women respond to stress  with a cascade of brain chemicals that cause them to make and maintain friendships with other women. When the hormone oxytocin is released as part of the stress responses in a woman, it encourages her to tend children and gather with other women instead. When she actually engages in this tending or befriending studies suggest that more oxytocin is released, which further counters stress and produces a calming effect. This calming effect does not occur in men, says Dr. Klein, because testosterone which men produce in high levels when under stress seems to reduce the effects of oxytocin. 

Source: Taylor, S.E., Klein, L.C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T.L., Gurung, R.A.R., & Updegraff, J.A. (2000) 
" Female Responses to Stress: Tend and Befriend, Not Fight or Flight," Psychological Review, 107 (3) 41-429