Making friends as a new mom has been far easier than making friends as a single person. There's an instant conversation starter. Going to my local park was the best thing I did. Not only were there lots of other mothers there, but they lived near me! I also signed up for Warmlines, a free new moms group, at the Newton Cultural Center, and am still friends with the moms I met there. That was invaluable for normalizing what I was going through as a first time mother. The Newton Mamas yahoo group and meetup group is another way to meet moms in the area.

When my first son was 5 months old my husband graduated from business school and our entire peer group, including many couples and new parents, left town for job opportunities. Off to NYC, LA, and DC went my only "Mom friends", so I needed to start from scratch. Scary!
I attended local meetings of Boston Babywearers, La Leche League and free drop in playgroups at Watertown Family Network. I liked the folks I met but wasn't sure how to go from there to a friendship. Could I get up the nerve to essentially ask another Mom "out" or even ask for her phone number? I joined the playgroup at my church but found that the other kids could climb monkey bars while my little one couldn't even sit up yet. So I turned online. I joined a few Yahoo groups but rarely attended anything with my car seat averse child. Eventually I started my own group on Meetup and have created a community of like minded friends in Newton and nearby. Mothering can be a lonely, frustrating job for all it's joys. Having Mom friends, particularly ones who share my parenting philosophies, has greatly enhanced my life.

There are so many wonderful resources in the Newton area for the new mom. Warmlines, part of the Massachusetts School of Psychology, offers a weekly 6-week New Moms/New Babies support group, as well as support groups for new parents and single parents. Newton-Wellesley Hospital offers breastfeeding support groups, and Harvard Vanguard in Wellesley has weekly New Mom groups. These support groups saved my sanity during those early months. Plus, I'm still friends with many of the moms I met through support groups, and we have regular playgroups and mom nights.

Meetup.com has many opportunities to meet new moms. The biggest group is the Newton Hip Mamas group. There are many meetups for mothers with kids of all ages.

My husband and I met some of our closest parent friends through a prenatal yoga class and through the birthing class we took. Having friends that are going through the same issues at the same time has been a great way to stay sane.

I also made some very good friends through the New Moms Support Group that JF&CS offers (open to all faiths http://www.jfcsboston.org/) and through the Watertown Family Network (http://www.watertown.k12.ma.us/wfn/index.html). Unfortunately the grant that made the WFN possible has been severely cut down threatening to close the network and making it impossible to get funding to create a similar network in Newton.

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When I wanted to stay in touch with my new friends from the new moms group and realized there was no free family network in Newton, I started a yahoo group called Newton Moms. Later, I met Carolyn who ran the Newton Hip Mamas on MeetUp.com and we joined our efforts. Two years ago we moved the Newton Moms group to BigTent.com and had to rename it Newton Mamas. It is a free online community and moms have to join the Big Tent group first in order to sign up for the Meet Up Group. We use the Meet Up group to organize free events (or charge only what our cost is) and help moms meet other moms with children the same age as theirs. We ask for personal information in an effort to keep our community safe. This has been a great way for moms to meet.

You may have moms living on the same street but they sign up for a fee through Warmlines, Isis Maternity, Newton Mothers Forum or the Newton Cultural Center and never meet each other even though they are neighbors. The online community that Carolyn and I organize online is free and a great resource.
https://www.bigtent.com/groups/newtonmamas

Just to add to Andrea's response -- the Warmlines New Mothers groups are always free.

Movement classes in Newton! (Babydance and Playdance)
Great movement classes in Newton at the Joanne Langione Dance Center starting at 9 months.

BABYDANCE- A wonderful first movement class designed to encourage natural curiosity for exploration. Babydance fosters creativity with simple, appropriate movement and song activties in a fun and caring environment that develop social and physical skills while having fun with mom! (dad or caregiver!)

Also, a great class for children ages 2-3....Playdance! So Cute!

PLAYDANCE- At Playdance, children learn to love movment using scarves, magic wands, tutus, and rhythm sticks in movement and music games that foster imagination and creativiy. Playdance is a 1.5 hr creative movement readiness class that includes a juice and story break.

www.jldancecenter.com

All Newton Music School offers early childhood music classes for children starting at age 20 mo old. Our classes for our youngest students include caregivers. This is a great way to meet area families! Learn more by visiting: www.allnewtonmusicschool.com.