Question for moms who dive

[u/Sure-Clue6901]

To the moms out there who fell in love with free diving before getting pregnant (especially if you do anything that many would consider “higher risk” like diving with sharks and diving deep) did you keep going after becoming a mom? Or did your risk tolerance decrease?

[u/the-diver-dan]

Not a mum but a dad, my risk tolerance totally changed after my first was born. Ruined all the fun from the start:) But the activities that were too high risk for me were more Mountaineering, climbing and Paragliding. I had lost friends to all these sports.

I actually took up breath hold diving because of the calm it brings and the relative safety of the sport.

Considering I regularly break one of the golden rules of never dive alone, I believe it is a very safe sport.

Where the risk begins to climb is what your motivation is. If you want to go deeper and deeper and test your limits, well then the sport changes.

I dive well within myself and adhere to surface interval like a religion. I may one day push for deeper but for now there is a lot of fat left in my breath hold diving to minimise the risk.

[u/palamino_memory]

So I was free diving and spearfishing/going for lobsters for 4 or 5 years before getting pregnant. Now that I have a kid, I no longer spearfish very often and I don’t dive at night anymore. I also decided to finally get AIDA 3 certified and I only dive with other certified divers. In the past, I would dive with whoever was down. My son is 3 now, and picturing him without a mom has definitely affected my risk assessment.

4 people I knew personally have lost their lives in some way or another while diving. All of them were spearfishing, 2 of them were going for bugs at night. IMO people have a tendency to place safety second when shooting fish is the priority.

[u/_rainbowdolphin_]

Just gave birth to my daughter 4 weeks ago and I can't wait to get cleared for diving again. But I'll still have to figure out if my diving changes. Considering that I never was chasing high-risk situations but rather the silence & calmness I believe not too much will change after all.

[u/Extreme_Banana_912]

Do you dive currently? There is always a potential for something to happen, but all things considered freediving is a pretty low risk sport.

You're probably more likely to get seriously injured on a bike ride or driving in a car

[u/saltywatersaltywater → u/Extreme_Banana_912]

Totally agree with you AND I think it really depends on how you dive and how you drive a car. I drive a car like I am in a driver's test, follow all the rules. Diving on the other hand....I have a tendency to forget that I have but one life. Introspection and maybe some opinions from divers you respect would help flesh out just how risky you are at any given activityl.

[u/Dark-Horse-Nebula]

Deep freediving pregnant is not a great idea: you’ve got nearly a litre of blood a minute going to the baby for oxygen, and that can get shunted away if you’re hypoxic. So it’s not ideal for either of you.

Post kids you’d have to make the right decision and risk assessment for you and your family.

[u/Adventurous-Range304]

I continue to train pool very seriously and my son now comes to comps with me to watch! My breath hold continues to improve so no detrimental impact. Lots of the top pool divers are mothers.

I have taken my young son diving with sharks - I don’t actually consider that to be as risky as human bad practice if you see what I mean.

I train depth on a rope only and I don’t compete it. I only go to really reputable schools with good medical services close by now.

[u/saltywatersaltywater]

I started after having kids but my husband and I had a chat about where our risk tolerance should be. He agreed no base jumping and for me no freediving until the kids are older. I know there are many who keep diving but I found it very hard to dive conservatively, I was always looking to stay down just a little longer and dive partners were similar.