Echo Woman
The water babies
You would think nervous new parents might be reluctant to throw their precious little bundles in at the deep end. But, as Women's Editor Julia Breen reports, hundreds of North-East babies - including her own - are happy to plunge into an underwater wonderworld,many before they can even crawl
I'M under the water, waiting, as my
year-old daughter, eyes open in astonishment,
glides towards me
under the surface into my open
arms. I catch her, we float to the
surface and emerge, gasping for air, my
daughter splashing and kicking with
delight.
Holly has only just taken her first few
tentative steps on dry land, but, amazingly,
she's been swimming underwater
for nearly six months.
And she's not alone. Hundreds of parents
across the North-East have signed
their little ducklings up for lessons from
as early as a few days old.
"We've been delighted by the response
we've had," says Debby Watt, from Middlesbrough,
who started teaching Water
Babies classes in the area last
September.
Debby took her daughter Jorja to
Water Babies when she was a baby but
at the time the nearest classes were 90
minutes away. She enjoyed the lessons
so much, though, that when classes
started in Newcastle she asked to train
as an instructor, setting up her own franchise
in Tees Valley last year.
Water Babies is based on a theory pioneered
by Russian Igor Tjarkovsky in
the 1960s. His daughter was born two
months prematurely in a tub of warm
water where, unhindered by gravity, she
could move her little body more easily
and develop more quickly than anyone
had anticipated.
Tjarkovsky argued that time spent in
water speeds up a baby's development,
helping them to learn to walk or crawl
more quickly. Like many other mammals,
he said, we can swim naturally; all
that holds us back is fear. By teaching
babies from such an early age they bypass
that fear - making them happy and
confident in the water.
One of the reasons babies are so perfectly
designed for swimming is they
have a special reflex which kicks in as
soon as their faces are submerged.
This "gag" reflex ensures no water enters
their lungs. The reflex is strongest
in babies under six months, which is
why Water Babies start from an early
age.
This shouldn't be an excuse for parents
to take their infants to the pool and
dunk them, though - they need to be introduced
to it gently and have advance
warning of when they are going to be
submerged.
The Water Babies lessons teach children
not to solely rely on the gag reflex,
but train them to breathe in before they
are submerged.
Debby says: "It's hardly surprising
that they love it. After all, they have
spent their first nine months surrounded
by fluid."
The youngest baby to join the classes
was just two days old, but most parents
wait a little longer, with the average
starting at about six weeks.
"As soon as the mum feels ready, the
babies are ready, and they don't need to
have had their immunisations first,"
says Debby.
Although some local authority pools
run lessons for babies and parents, most
wait until they are at least four months
old - partly due to the fact that the pools
are generally cooler than the private
pools used by Water Babies.
The classes - such as Aquababes at
Richmond Swimming Pool - are excellent
for getting your baby used to the
water, and are generally much cheaper
(about one tenth of the cost), but the underwater
work is limited. Water Babies
classes are more challenging.
And they're not just a novelty. The
lessons are partly about teaching children
to be safe in the water.
"Although babies rarely appear to be
doing any more than having fun, they
are actually learning potential life-saving
skills," says Debby. "Most people
wouldn't think it, but drowning is still
the third largest cause of accidental
death for children in the UK and over recent
years there has been no decline in
the number of incidents."
On the more advanced course, instructors
throw the baby into the pool,
where he or she is caught by the parent,
turned around, and encouraged to hold
on to the side.
THIS is lifesaving training. From
day one of the weekly lessons, babies
are taught to hold on to the
side of the pool themselves - something
which could potentially save their lives.
And there's not an armband in sight;
Water Babies believe they give a false
sense of security to the babies.
In an age where childhood obesity is
becoming a major health issue, swimming
at such a young age could also help
turn the tide against a generation of
overweight, inactive children.
"Although babies lack the strength to
swim on the surface until they are three
or four, when carefully supervised they
can enjoy the sensation of moving their
arms and legs underneath the water
within days of birth," says Debby.
Some older babies can be nervous
when they start the lessons, especially
if they have never been swimming before,
or if their parent is anxious.
However, the miniature swimmers are
never forced to do anything they object
to, and parents are encouraged to persevere
taking them to the classes so they
9:39am Tuesday 11th March 2008
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