AMELIA Gazzard is a real water baby – taking the plunge into a pool just nine days after she was born!

Just over a week after her arrival in the world, the tiny tot became one of the youngest babies in Hampshire and Berkshire to have her first swimming lesson.

She joined her dad Nathan in the pool at Limington House in St Andrew’s Road, South Ham, Basingstoke, with other proud new parents and their water babies who were also taking to the pool for the first time.

The lessons are meant to strengthen the muscles of new-borns, helping them later when they try to use their arms and legs to move around outside the pool.

Amelia is not yet strong enough to carry her body weight on the surface of the water and swim, but soon she should be able to swim underwater once she has learned how to hold her breath.

Instructor Melissa Holt uses techniques to prepare the babies for underwater swimming, by scooping water over their faces before dunking them underneath.

Louise Crisford, Amelia’s aunt and franchisee of Water Babies, said: “Babies have a gag reflex so they won’t inhale water, but they can’t yet hold their breath.

“The techniques we use teach them how to do this so eventually they can hold their breath and swim under the water. Some of them have a strong swim reflex but to actually lift themselves to the surface and swim probably won’t happen until they are three or four.”

The temperature of the pool has to be above 30 degrees celsius to keep the babies warm enough, and to start with, parents hold them to support their bodies, before they learn how to swim on their own.

Instructor Melissa said: “The emphasis is to give the parents the skills they need to have confidence with their baby in the water.

“A lot of people think they have to wait until they have their six-to-eight week jab but that’s not true. We go by the NHS website and because this pool is 32 degrees, we can have little babies.

“There’s a lot of evidence to prove that it does strengthen the muscles early on. A baby in the water is using all the muscles so by the time they want to walk or crawl, the muscles are already developed and it makes it easier.

“A baby who swims early will crawl and walk early too.”

New dad Nathan, 26, from Winklebury, Basingstoke, took Amelia in the pool while her mother Kirsty, 24, watched from the side.

He said: “It was really good and Amelia seemed to love it. She seemed pretty confident with everything. Going underwater was a bit scary but the sooner she can swim the better.

“I did Marine Biology as a degree and I also dive so we want her to enjoy the water too. She’ll be diving before we know it!”