Before I became a mum myself I used to laugh at other mothers I knew who took their baby to baby massage classes and underwater swimming lessons.

I remember thinking that they obviously had too much time on their hands and it amused me how it was just a sign of the privileged area they were living in.

But then 15 months ago I became a mother and from that moment on all I wanted to do was to prepare my little boy for the real world.

That’s why when I saw the advertisement for a local Water Babies class in Dorchester, which promised to teach my son Dylan essential life-saving skills, I jumped at the chance.

The concept behind the Water Babies is that the instructors teach the parents to teach their own babies how to swim.

We started at 12 weeks, which at the time stumped our parents and grandparents who couldn’t fathom why we’d deliberately take our tiny baby into a swimming pool – although I have to admit it is a very cosy hydropool and feels more like a warm bath.

Not only do the babies learn to have fun and confidence but they actually learn to swim underwater.

Yes, that’s right, they actually go underwater and a year on from my first class, the sight of Dylan swimming below the surface never ceases to amaze me.

What’s more, the classes have successfully saved the lives of 10 babies, who have managed to swim to the surface and to the safety of the poolside, after falling into dangerously deep water. And that’s exactly what happened to Jo Tolley, who runs the Water Babies franchise in Dorset together with her husband Steve.

When their son Stanley was just three years old, the couple had the terrifying experience of seeing him jump into a swimming pool while on holiday in Spain.

“We heard a massive splash,” Jo recalls.

“We realised he had fallen into the deep end and our hearts stopped.

“But within seconds he managed to kick himself to the side and hold on.

“It was absolutely incredible and other than being so frustrated that it had happened we were just incredibly proud and pleased we had taught him to swim.”

The near-miss was a truly horrific experience for any parent to witness but just strengthened the couple’s belief that babies should be taught these essential life-saving skills.

Drowning is the third largest cause of accidental death for children in the UK so it is not surprising that the high profile cases of toddlers saving themselves after falling into streams, canals and swimming pools hit the national press.

Jo and Steve started Dorset Water Babies in 2008 with 60 babies taking lessons in Bournemouth and Salisbury and today have 700 babies learning to swim across Dorset.

“I fell in love with the classes when I first got in the water with my son Stanley 10 years ago.

“It was truly inspirational to see how much he enjoyed it and how natural it was.

“Now as an instructor I still love it, within 20 minutes of being in a class mums ware willing to hand over their little babies because they trust our methods.”

The youngest-ever baby to start the classes was a two-week-old but generally parents enrol their babies after about 10 weeks.

The unique Water Babies programme is specifically designed to harness baby’s skills from birtht to 24 months and parents are advised to start before the baby’s first birthday.

The idea of babies being able to swim independently underwater is centuries old.

Children on the Pacific Islands have been doing it for generations, as observed by Captain Cook back in 1778.

The phenomenum has also been medically documented for many years. As early as 1939, Dr Myrtle McGraw published her pioneering study ‘Swimming Behaviour in the Human Infant’ in the Journal of Pediatrics, where she filmed and studied 42 swimming babies.

With more and more schools unable to offer swimming lessons because of budget shortfalls Jo says the lessons are even more important.

“Faced with the fact that a third of children at primary school can’t swim these early lessons are becoming more and more popular,” she says.

  • The courses are made up of ten-week terms and start from £104 a term. Current classes take part in hydropools around Dorset, including Dorchester, Weymouth and Bournemouth. For further information visit waterbabies.co.uk/local/Dorset or call 01258 458520