I have written about this before because this is not my first pregnancy and my core theory remains the same on how to manage staying connected to the water when pregnant.
Statistically women don’t return to professional diving post birth for obvious reasons. Child care and Motherhood get in the way, of course they do but my aim with child bearing has always been to do as much as I can to stay connected to my sense of self and the things I love doing when having babies. This is perhaps easier said than done.
So many things become more tricky when you are growing a person. Everything feels a little bit harder, flying becomes a barrier, diving stops and your attention turns to the safety of your baby and rightly so but there are ways to link to the water and something I have found an absolute god send in the absence of being able to dive is snorkelling. Whether this is at home in the UK or abroad, either works.
That feeling of jumping on an airplane, booking in with a dive centre, eagerly awaiting boarding a dive boat, sailing out to a site, chucking your fins and mask on and getting into that ever so pretty blue sea is a thirst many of us divers have.
Heavily pregnant I waddled to see my GP and midwife to get my fit note to fly. Armed with an ok I hit the road and headed to the airport. Slightly exhausted from a delayed flight but incredibly eager to get into the water I packed a dry bag and jumped on board a beautiful boat.
The thrill and total excitement of cooling down on a super hot day by sliding into the water builds and that first few minutes when you get in and feel the salt on your skin and the temperature chill your core is euphoric. The ease of not donning a full set of kit but just jumping in and swimming around is glorious.
Swimming around the coast and exploring rock formations and glass fish swimming towards you at speed is lovely. The odd turtle pops up, diver bubbles below you tickle your face as they rise to the surface. It is truly magical and a wonderful way to link to that passion of submerging. It is also enormously relaxing and calming, both great things when pregnant.
Travelling with friends or partners embarking on their dive journeys through training or as a fun diver is also very special. As an Instructor myself, my joy really comes from watching other people experience the sport I love. Sitting on the edge watching people you care about get excited about learning a new skill is equally rewarding. Asking you a question on the surface interval about their dive or a fish they saw keeps you connected and allows you the opportunity to share all of that knowledge you have about marine life and diving. It is a treasure to share those things.
There are of course tons of ways that you can stay connected to the water and I discussed these recently here…
https://blog.padi.com/connecting-to-the-ocean-when-pregnant
https://blog.padi.com/diving-and-pregnancy-my-story
The most important thing however is that you do. Keep doing the things you love, keep reading about the things you like, keep connecting with fellow acquaintances who share you passions and most importantly do everything you can to return to it as often as you can when you can.
