✅ Mums who gave birth or welcomed a baby within the last 3 years. 

✅ Pregnant women

✅ You are as welcome as every other mother if you have:

• adopted
• had a surrogate
• experienced a still birth
• your baby is no longer with you...  

You are still post partum and/or would benefit from early motherhood community, fitness and topics. 

❌ Can't join in 

• This is not a hydrotherapy class for retirees
• If it's medically unsafe for you to participate. (See the safety FAQ for more information)
• Unfortunately, babies and male partners can not attend
• Females in your support network are welcome to sit on the side lines with your baby as long as you are both responsible for their safety and the baby is not able to crawl or walk within the pool fence. 
• Male partners are welcome to take babies for a walk or hang at the cafe nearby 

✅ You don’t have to be from Noosa:

• We’ve had people regularly drive in from every end of the Coast from Caloundra to Buderim to Cooroibah.
• We’ve had visitors from Sydney, Melbourne, Europe and south America so far.
• Please come add to the list of locations! 

✅ None of these factors change how welcome you are:

• race
• age
• bank balance
• religion
• sexual orientation
• relationship status
• weight/shape
• fitness level
• number of kids
• type of bathers
• how many times you can attend
• how many kids you have
• how pregnant you are
• how many babies are in your belly
• whether English is your 1st language (although you need to understand/communicate enough to allow for safety at the pool)
• whether you're neurodivergent
• whether you live with a disability (see below)

Access for people living with disabilities:

• please let me know in advance if you have particular access needs to I can help plan the smoothest experience for you.
• There are some accessibility limitations at the venue unfortunately.
• in the past we have had women attend with amputations, severe scoliosis, and a woman who was born without fingers on 1 hand.

Vision:

• you can wear vision glasses or prescription sunglasses in the pool.
• Sometimes they get splashed, but putting your face in the water isn't part of class.
• I recommend bringing something (other than your towel) to keep within reach of the pool to wipe off your glasses if required. Towels can't be near the edge in case they get saturated.

Hearing/ears:

• Hearing aids might get splashed. Ensure their water resistance is sufficient.
• Whilst you may see an occasional video from the pool with a woman submerging her ears, there are always alternatives. Many women dislike the feeling regardless of hearing aids or ear infections, so ears are more commonly above water for the entire class.
• Occasionally we play some background music, but it's never essential. You can always request for me to turn it off.
• if you need ear plugs to prevent any chance of a drop of water entering your ears, please let me know so we can work around the reduced hearing to keep everyone safe.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to enquire.

Pregnant:

• The earlier you start - the better
• "Wish I discovered this class sooner" - I hear this every week
• You can continue for as long as your pregnancy goes for
• Want to come at 42 weeks? See you there!

Post partum: 

• You need to be at least 6 weeks post partum
• You had your baby in the last 3 years
•  (If your youngest child arrived 4 years ago, I need to prioritise others who are earlier post partum. Don't hesitate to reach out and request to be on the waiting list in case the class isn't full, in which case you are warmly welcome.)

Usually.

See the SAFETY section below for medical conditions that could make it unsafe.

See the "who attends?" FAQ for vision/hearing

Pelvic floors and abdominal muscles:

• The support of the water and the ability to do lots of horizontal exercise is a winning combination for pelvic floor and abdominal safety.
• If you have prolapse or incontinence, hydrotherapy is one of the safest forms of exercise you can do, but it's still a great work out! Win-win. 

Pregnancy specific research:

• No adverse outcomes found with water exercise in systematic review over 27 years (Charlesworth et al 2011)
• No negative impact on birth outcomes - RCT (Bacuik et al 2008) 
• Pool temperature is perfect at Noosa Springs (27-31 ̊C). Research up to 33.4 ̊C found no influence on body temperature response (Brearley et al 2015).
• No evidence of water entering vagina (Goodlin et al 1984) 
• No increase in urinary or vaginal infections (Kihlstrand et al 1999)
• Chlorine disinfection by-products have no effect (Nieuwenhuijsen 2002, Juhl et al 2010). Noosa Springs is a low traffic outdoor pool, so it's great in terms of chlorine compared to other pools anyway.

ANY. 

There is a zero tolerance policy for judging other people's birth experiences and preferences.

This is a very safe space, no matter what your story is. It's a wonderful community. I have never witnessed any issues with judgemental comments or looks, but if I did, I would kindly educate to ensure it stopped immediately. If it persisted, I would ask the 'perpetrator' to leave the pool. 

• It's not compulsory but it's highly recommended to follow @noosapregnancyaqua even if it's the only thing you have on your instagram.
• That's how I communicate the important information such as class cancellations
• You can manage without it if:
  • you don't mind driving to the pool and finding it cancelled
  • You don't mind missing out on tips, laughs, baby announcements and community spirit 
  • (please let me know what is most missed so that I can improve my email systems)

• No
• Please remind me that you prefer not to at EACH class and I will 100% respect that

• You will be fine but you must let the instructor know if you don’t feel confident in deep water 
• We ALWAYS use floaty devices in the deeper water

• 3/4 of the pool is easy to stand in

•  1/4 of the pool is too deep to stand but easy to jump to the surface