In the United States, about ten people die from unintentional drowning every day. Of these, most are children aged 4 or younger. Most parents do not realize that the risk of drowning is the #1 leading cause of unintentional death for young babies and toddlers. Our lack of knowledge in regards to drownings in this country is beyond outdated. Every time I share just a few of the statistics regarding these preventable tragedies, you should see the jaws drop on my clients time and time again. How can this be you ask?
Well, there are many contributing factors. Mainly it is our misconceptions about water. Society tells us that we are supposed to introduce water as a time for “Fun and Play!” to our children. But that’s where we are wrong. Swimming is not something we are born knowing how to do. If it was, a drowning child wouldn’t be at the bottom of a pool in 2.5 seconds.
We must all be taught this skill, just like riding a bike. Unfortunately, many parents feel that professional lessons and structured swim programs are not necessary because they do not ever plan on leaving their child unsupervised, they have their flotation devices or they don’t want to upset their child and have to endure the crying, etc.
This has now left us in a time when drownings are at an all-time high, especially in states like California, Texas, Arizona and Florida because of pools being so accessible. Learning to swim is not always going to be “Fun.” Survival swimming is a totally different ball game. Our first goal is to get that child “Safe” and equipped with the muscle memory and skills to save their lives. Then after we have a safe and confident swimmer, we can have fun and play. As instructors, we prepare our clients for what the Infant Aquatics program entails. Babies as young as 6 months are capable of learning to breath and float independently in the water in the case that they ever found themselves alone. And, as one can imagine, handing your infant over to stranger and watching your child be submerged into the water while crying is not going to be an easy task. As a mother of 3 daughters under the age of 5, I get it, believe me. I feel that it is my connection as a mother who would do ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING to keep my babies safe that helps me truly walk my parents through the education process of water safety and survival swimming.
Instructors should be certified Infant Aquatic specialists and I would recommend you do your research on your chosen professional just like you would your child’s pediatrician. I get asked all the time, “Miss Jess, how did you get into the career of Infant Aquatics?” And I absolutely love answering this question. Because it really gives me the opportunity to share my passion for this amazing network of individual Instructors and the life saving technique we all bring to our communities.
There is no denying that being a single mom of 3 young children can get chaotic at moments and I know that I personally can not be next to all of my children at exactly the same moment. As much as we try as parents, it is just not possible to have an eye on them 1440 minutes a day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. At some point, the phone will ring and I will have to answer it. Or I will be at the pool party and have to go make our plates for lunch. It’s life! And I know that my answering that phone has innocently distracted me 5 or so minutes at one point or another without even thinking about it.
So that brings me to the moment I discovered survival swimming. I just knew this was a NON – NEGOTIABLE. Just like with our car seats, vaccinations, school, etc… it was probably going to be hard at first, but like most daily decisions we make as parents “we gotta do what we gotta do” because we love our babies more than anything.
So, after doing my research, I pulled in my troops and registered my oldest daughter, then 12 months. At the time the closest Instructor was 50 minutes away, but with the help of my mother and grandparents we all committed to the Monday through Friday classes for 6 weeks. The first week and a half was hard to bare, because obviously my daughter had her fair share of tears. But there was no doubt that she was learning and mastering her Swim Float Swim skills with every lesson. By the end of her program, my passion for this Lifesaving Technique had been established. Seeing my daughter who could not even talk swim across an entire pool, taking her breaths while in her safety float, flipping back over when she was ready to keep swimming, all by herself was just breathtaking. And I knew that I just had to get trained.
So my family and I relocated to Boulder, Colorado, where I began the intensive training program with Judy Heumann, Founder of the Infant Aquatics Network. The rest as they say is history! I left that training facility with more pride, knowledge in business, psychology, anatomy and, most notably, the skill set to train babies as young as 6 months to save their own lives in a body of water.
Upon my arrival back home, I established my very own swim school, SoCal Survival Swimming, Home of Infant Aquatics LLC. based out of Temecula, California. I have had the opportunity to teach more than 500 children the skill set of survival swimming.
