Little swimmers from across South Wales have been captured in magical underwater photos during their swimming lessons with Water Babies.
Babies and children as young as 3 months are pictured happily floating underwater in beautiful photographs shot at swimming pools across South Wales. The young swimmers have attended Water Babies swimming lessons and have learned to be safely submerged.
Under expert guidance, newborns can safely swim underwater due to the ‘laryngeal reflex’. This natural reflex automatically closes the airway when water touches a baby’s face, nose, or throat, preventing water from entering their lungs. As Water Babies swimmers progress, they learn breath control through word association, allowing them to continue swimming underwater safely even after losing the reflex—an essential life-saving skill.
The photos, shot at pools including Heronsbridge School, Ysgol Crug Glas and The Village Hotel Swansea, are the result of a lot of careful preparation. A state of the art photography studio is set up under the water to create that iconic ‘Nirvana’ shot. The photographers are trained underwater photography professionals – many of them award winning – who started as scuba divers and have gone on to work for the likes of the BBC and National Geographic. The photographers have to hold their breath underwater, hold heavy equipment, lower their heart rate and keep their hands steady as they wait to capture that perfect moment as baby is prepared and then gently submerged underwater by a trained ‘dipper’. Water Babies is the only swim company to have its own in-house, award-winning underwater baby photography unit.
Over 1500 babies and toddlers across South Wales learn to swim with Water Babies every week. The teachers are trained to the highest possible standard through England’s National Governing Body, Swim England, exclusively earning the Level 3 Teaching Pre-School Swimming (Advanced) qualification. Water Babies lessons teach the lifesaving skill of learning how to swim – taking each child on a journey of aquatic discovery, adventure and purposeful play from as young as one day old!