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From One Mom to Another

Communicate to
Prevent Drownings

By Ana Maria Camargo

We are extremely careful parents who have made our child's safety a priority in our lives. We have carefully childproofed our house, and we never leave her unsupervised. We, of course, knew, as did all of the parents we talked with, that one should never leave a child without supervision near any amount of water. However, this accident was not about knowledge of potential environmental hazards, it was about knowing how to communicate effectively and the importance of not making assumptions.

We stayed at the resort for five days after the incident and, although we didn't sleep very well, we enjoyed and celebrated every minute with our loving daughter. To get through this incident we have decided on some basic rules. As far as communication, we have decided that the default is that Alexandra is always with me unless I ask my husband or he tells me he will watch her. Designating one adult as responsible leaves no room for assumptions like the ones we made that day.

Second, taking a first aid or CPR class once is not enough. I took such a class shortly after the birth of Alexandra and had read articles on CPR, but when I was confronted with my dead baby, I had no memory of what I was suppose to do. I now will take the class every year, as recommended, in case something should happen to my baby or anyone else's baby when my husband is not around. Finally, we have decided to tell all the parents we know about our story. It is awful to relive it with each telling, but it would be worse to have a family lose their child because they didn't have the opportunity to learn from our experience.

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