Scuba Diving as a First Time Mother

That First Postpartum Dive

I often heard people tell me that when you have a child, the life as you know it is over. What I found instead is that your once adventurous life is definitely not over, but just beginning. . . Having a child while being a full time scuba diver has its challenges I will admit, yet not an impossible achievement.

Before my little miracle arrived, I was working as an instructor and divemaster in the scuba industry. The most challenging part of it all was going a year without diving, my gills were dry and I needed the water.

While I was pregnant I was free-diving conservatively to keep my sanity, which proved very relaxing for my body and mind. However, after moving to the most landlocked country in Europe, life felt tough for my enthusiastic dive life.

Once my body was finally on the road to recovery after birth, and my son reached an age where we could be more adventurous with our activities, and I felt comfortable to leave him, I went for my first dive with my husband after a year and a half. Granted it wasn’t the best diving conditions, barely 2 meters visibility and COLD, but it felt good to be submerged in the ever healing waters and feel like all burdens of life are lifted.

Soon I learned that there were now other challenges that came with “the scuba diving life”, being a mother to a very young son.

BREASTFEEDING!

Since my son is breastfed, he has a huge dependency on me. This means that a lot of my time during the day is dedicated to serving his vigorous routine feedings. Because of this, I not only had to plan my dive, but plan the dive around my son’s feedings and nap. This proved challenging, however having someone to look after your little one is definitely a bonus.

I also learned how casual other divers were about the fact I had my child with me and moments I needed to breastfeed. There was no shaming, and I could feel comfortable doing my thing! As a diver you got to be used to the endless supply of spit, saliva, and snot. So why not breastmilk too?

Another important feature for me was easy access to “the goods” to quench my son’s thirst. And being a drysuit diver, fourth element’s Argonaut suit was absolutely a life saver with its frontal zip and ease of donning on and off. I originally purchased the drysuit for my daily diving/snorkelling work in Iceland. Little did I know the “ease of access” would come in handy for when I needed to feed my son on our scuba trips.

There was a strange new instinct that developed within me, my mind began to wonder to different places and thoughts occurred to me that I really don’t want to leave my little one without a mother. This made me even more careful with my dive planning. As a first time mother with a young child, you have this feeling of not wanting to be separated from your baby. That they depend on you too much and you can’t leave them alone for more than two hours or you fear they will “die of starvation”. This can seem really daunting at first, and it was. But after overcoming that fear and strong emotion of “will my life ever be the same again?” I found something beautiful.

My son gets to be a part of my adventures! His brain gets to be stimulated by the sights and sounds of everything I love. He enjoys the outdoors as much as I do and I am ever grateful he loves to spend the time adventuring at his young age. With every breath in me I will encourage him to explore, and protect the nature we love.

So to those first time scuba mamas out there: Yes, there is hope, you will dive again. All it takes is patience, and determination. And aside from all those other challenges that come with motherhood, when adding diving into the equation it makes it even more so the challenge. Yet and exciting one nonetheless for both yourself and your child.