Amaia Jauregui, Founder of By Your Side BCN explains how her personal experience trying to manage the challenges of pregnancy, birth, and the early years of her child’s life in a foreign place gave her the inspiration to create a service to accompany new parents to find the right services in Barcelona. 

Moving to a new city, and a new country with a different language is a whole new adventure. If you add kids into the equation, many other challenges come into play and it’s a whole different story. 

We experienced this every time we moved to a new country, especially once we became parents facing all the newness of having a family. We know how challenging it can be and that’s why we founded By your side BCN. 

We help international families find their way around baby-related topics in Barcelona.

About Us

Kevin and Amaia from By Your Side BCN

Amsterdam was the city we spent the longest time in and it felt like our home for 8 years. I remember feeling overwhelmed when we arrived there and had to deal with all the setup, paperwork, and medical system. Everything was completely different from our home country. Due to an error in the setup of the bank account, it took me a couple of months to get my bank card which was a real hassle. Not speaking the language, in the beginning, didn’t make it any easier. Although almost everybody speaks English in Amsterdam and is super helpful, I still felt vulnerable. After all those years abroad we decided it was time to come back to Barcelona and settle down.

We became parents and a whole new world opened to us. We then realised how challenging it must be for families with young kids to find their way around in a new city.

Challenges New Parents Face as Expats

Topics such as “Which pediatrician do I go to?” or ”I’m pregnant and I don´t know which giving birth options are available” become very important in this special period of your life. Not knowing where to start or what services are available adds unnecessary stress and uncertainty.

I personally went through some bad experiences when giving birth and wish I had the support we are now offering families. I didn’t get proper guidance on my lactation issues at the hospital and I nearly quit breastfeeding. Thanks to a certified lactation consultant that I met at a birth preparation course, I continued breastfeeding. I then truly understood how important it is to find the right people by your side.

We felt completely lost and puzzled in the first months of being parents and so, we started doing lots of research. We read extensively about the early years and the options Barcelona has to offer babies and their parents in order to make the most of our experience. We realised we could make good use of all our research to help others and By Your Side BCN came to life. 

Once we decided we were going to help other families, we were determined to find the best options available in the city and contacted lots of professionals to help us shape the project. This research, together with all the interviews we did with expat families, helped us understand where to put our focus and which areas to cover.

Help for Expat Parents

Pregnancy and Birth 

Many questions arise during this time such as: who to go for pregnancy follow-up, which birth preparation course is best, or what are the options for giving birth in Barcelona?

We offer advice around those areas and the best options relevant to you when you’re pregnant based on our research and community connections.

Early Years

Once the baby is born, a new reality comes on board, and important concerns might keep you awake at night, like finding a good pediatrician, following up postpartum recovery, or professional support with lactation. Then there are the more bureaucratic matters; such as registering the baby. The paperwork can be a nightmare if you don’t know all the required steps. You might also want to connect with other families in a similar situation and get some social activity back in your routine.

We can help you navigate all of these new situations.

Growing Pains

As the baby grows older, new needs appear. You may want to understand more about sleep solutions or daycare options, and many other things to do with this stage of your baby’s development.

We provide advice on those areas relevant to the early years and support parents’ needs at this time.

Do you feel like you could do with some help and have questions you want to ask?

Do you want to know more about what we do?

We offer a 20 min discovery call to understand what you’re looking for and what we can do for you.

Contact us

If you need to complement the practical support provided by By Your Side BCN with emotional support for pre-natal, postpartum or raising a child without a village, get in touch with Therapy in Barcelona.