Matroswimming: enjoy swimming with your baby

Some activities are remembered throughout life. One of them may be matronatation. Uniting sport and pleasure favouring development, it is a unique experience that we bring you closer to today. Matroswimming is the development of aquatic activities with babies prior to formal swimming, is practiced between 0 months to 3 years, average age when the locomotive system is developed enough to achieve that the child swims autonomously. In these activities, the role of the father or mother in the water is fundamental. Through the technical guidance of the teacher in charge, parents participate in their baby's aquatic adventure, acquiring the knowledge to build their own educational project and enriching the quality of communication with their son or daughter. It is an original, unique and unrepeatable experience. Water is an instrument of basic enrichment for the child from the first months of extrauterine life. If you are interested in knowing what it is or what it is for, read on.
 

Swimming for babies

Providing an opportunity to introduce the baby to the enjoyment and risks of being surrounded by water, matronation has been practiced since the 1960s, known by different names depending on the country and language in question, for example "baby swim" or "Infant swimming" in the United States. Babies have a lot of fun in the water. Swimming is the most complete sport and the first to start, even before babies learn to walk or crawl. As a rule, matronatation sessions usually last between 30 and 45 minutes. It is common for materials such as balls, churros, or floats to be used to carry out the different games. A wide variety of games, as well as the use of toys in the course of the classes, facilitate the knowledge of water as a medium on the part of your child. The age for babies to start matronatation classes is not clearly defined, but the latest studies determine that matronatation can start from six months of age, when the baby's immune system is more developed.

Although the name may sometimes imply something else, matronatation is not intended for the child to learn to swim, but is a kind of aquatic gymnastics. Swimming for babies or matronatation could be defined as an affective, recreational, pleasant and stimulating experience. The main benefits of matronatation are:

• strengthen the affective and cognitive relationship;
• it helps the baby to relax, favouring an open appetite, a good mood and a better sleep;
• psychomotor development, as the baby moves freely in the water and begins to acquire notions of distances;
• locomotor development, improving mobility and muscular performance;
• cardiorespiratory and immunological systems, since swimming strengthens the heart and lungs and strengthens the defences of the child;
• intelligence, since water stimulates the ability of the child to play, which in the future will have a positive effect on learning, and
• socialization, due to the fact that contact with other children in the pool helps to improve social relations, learning to communicate more fluently and to carry out group activities.

During the first months of a baby's life, all family routines change. Mothers and fathers establish new activities, new schedules, and numerous ways to stimulate the child. And matronation is one of them. Never forget that the most important objective of this activity is to strengthen the bond of love and trust between the mother or father, and the baby, making both share an original experience, unique and unrepeatable, strengthening the affective and cognitive relationship between baby - mom - dad. In matronation, the role of the father or mother in the water is fundamental. In addition, as if this were not enough, situations of play are going to be created, within a playful and recreational environment. The ultimate goal of leading children to matronation should not be that they swim out but that they learn to relate to water and not to be afraid of it.

In the case of mothers, it is important to know that among the most notable benefits they experience when attending matronation classes with their children are:

• like their little ones, they have a great time and manage to free themselves from the stress they can accumulate because of their care and their own work;
• it helps them to clearly strengthen the affective bond with their babies;
• the connection between mothers and children is clearly established on a physical level and this allows any barriers that might exist in this regard to be eliminated; and
• women gain security and confidence thanks to this activity that they are capable of protecting, caring for and entertaining children in equal parts.

As parents, with matronation you will learn important maneuvers and techniques to help your babies feel safe and protected in the water, making optimal use of all the possibilities of movement that this medium offers.

If you're looking for a place to enjoy matronatation, that's Ozone by Reebok Functional. From the age of 6 months, you can enjoy with your baby our matronation sessions in the Ozone by Reebok Functional swimming pool, the new Reebok Functional centre in Gran Canaria, in Holidayworld Maspalomas. The water of the swimming pool in contact with the baby reminds him of his passage through the mother's womb so it is a perfect activity for them. Matronatation is much more than a swimming class: it involves stimulating the baby in an aquatic environment to promote its psychomotor development. This is one of the most enjoyable activities for mothers, as well as enjoying a special moment with their baby. Get informed!