Alex Trelinski
A CO-PARENTING agency is awaiting the first baby birth from a client who will raise her with a co-parent with the two people having had no previous relationship between them.
Anthropologist Carmen Balaguer created Copaternidad in 2021 and has over 200 people on the company’s books around the country.
“This October will see the first woman who joined our agency give birth to a girl in Barcelona, and there are four further pregnancies on the way- the next of which will be February,” said Balaguer.
“Co-paternity encompasses people who want to be dads and mums and for different reasons don’t fit in within the traditional family model,” she added.
“In the agency, ‘we unite, accompany and create community’ and either deal with friends who want to be parents or with people who decide to go through a selection process that helps them find their paternity or maternity companion.”
Most people who come to the agency with someone are after legal and logistical guidance over co-parenting.
Carmen Balaguer said: “It is very important to have professionals to help them throughout the process, as well as parenting counsellors, psychologists and solicitors, and though friends wanting to parent seems the best option, it is not always the best way forward if it is not managed properly.”
“Perhaps they do not have the same view of paternity or maternity that each one has or the kind of the education they want to give their child- so it is important to communicate and have shared objectives,” she outlined.
Copaternidad not only advises on legal issues, but also provides important help to find the right match for a potential co-parent.
“When people come to us, first of all we check that they are suitable and qualified people for the upbringing of a child, and then if everything is fine, we create a profile for them,” Balaguer explained.
“After several meetings we try to find the most compatible person and then we organise a ‘date’ so that they can get to know each other.”
No photos of the people involved are shown to each other ahead of the ‘date’ and if they hit it off, the process moves forward.
“There are already several people that have been paired and though our service ends contractually when a pair make an agreement, we stay in touch to help them as a community,” Balaguer concluded.
