f Tonight on Sunday, babies saving themselves from drowning. If they do happen to fall into a pool, they've got that chance at survival. It's a controversial technique,... A crying baby is an alive baby. ...but if it's saving lives,... It is proven it does work and it's safe. ...why aren't we doing it? If you wanna scare a kid to death, that's the way to go. You're OK. And... Beautiful! Beautiful! She looks healthy. She looks normal. She looks amazing. Beautiful. ...model Robyn Lawley... When I went to see the agencies my weight was always the issue. ...on being labelled plus-size. I shouldn't be called any label. Captions by Anne Langford. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2014 Kia ora. I'm Miriama Kamo. Infant self-rescue. It's controversial. Those who back it say it saves lives ` the lives of toddlers who fall into the water, but critics say the self-rescue technique ` submerging babies, is likely to make them terrified of the water. So who's right? Well, tonight we look at the American programme that aims to give babies survival skills before they're old enough to get into trouble. Here's John Hudson. It could happen to anyone. A moment's inattention doesn't have to cost their baby his life. A toddler escapes and within seconds, he falls in. If they do happen to fall into a pool, they've got that chance at survival. Incredibly, he saves himself. It is proven, it does work and it's safe. Infant self rescue. BABY CRIES A revolutionary technique that saves lives. Very good. BABY CRIES But at what price? It's hard to watch them, you know, when they flip over, or they look like they're in distress. And why aren't we doing it here? They are getting kids that have a fear of the water. They just hate it. A crying baby is an alive baby. These are water-confident babies; some as young as 6 months old, and they're already turning on to their backs and floating. It's easy to teach a child, the younger that they are. Once they're mobile, they're wired to learn to crawl, roll over and sit and walk, all before they can talk. Joann Barnett co-founded ISR, the infant swimming resource in Florida in the 1970s. She realised that to save lives, they needed to teach babies self rescue first before they learn how to swim. I think as a culture, we teach our children that the water's fun, and if you're 2 years old and you can't swim, the water's not fun, so I think we need to change the way we think about the water. I think children should have fun in the water once they know how to survive there. You go swimming? ISR teaches babies like Julia how to float. Hi, sweetheart, how are you? Let's see how you do your good floating. BABY WHIMPERS Already 1 year old, and she can flip over on to her back and stay there for several minutes. Excellent. > She has learnt to do this through constant repetition. You have to teach them about the buoyancy by supporting them and letting them learn that the water will support them, so they are not fearful, and then they see that in a certain posture they can breathe, and the instructor just teaches that posture to the child. A technique that's intensive and taught by the instructor, not the parents. It's 10 minutes a day, five days a week, and it takes about three to four weeks. And it always works? > If the parents hang in there, yes. Ready, swimmers? Come on. Get ready, set, go! The next step for Julia will be to learn a swim-float-swim sequence, like these older kids. They'll teach her how to swim to the wall and gradually increase her skills. And that I think is a misconception about ISR, that it's just teaching the kid to self rescue, and that's not true. That's the first layer, and then their next refresher or their next lesson is to swim-float-swim, and so it's great. It's the best of both worlds because they can float and wait for safety or they can also try to get themselves out of the pool. Julia is one of 300,000 babies that's learnt ISR. ALL CHEER, CLAP And for her parents, Keri and Roarke Morrison, there's no doubt that it works. Julia loves the water. Every time I take her in the pool, she splashes, she smiles. It has not made her afraid of the water at all. When Julia had those first lessons it must have been devestating to watch her gasping for breath. It was, um, but I know what the outcome is if they don't know how to rescue themselves, so I was able to push through it and be strong for her. There's a very good reason why Julia's parents started ISR so early. Her older brother, Jake, drowned nearly a year ago. If I could trade places with him tomorrow, I wouldn't think twice about it for him to come back and spend his days with his mum and his little sister. < Jake, you going to take a bath? No. < No what? Cheese. < Cheese. (LAUGHS) Jake was nearly 3 when a freak accident claimed his life. SOBS: It had just gotten dark out... and I heard the words... Sorry. 'Where's Jake?' They were at a Thanksgiving dinner beside some coastal canals. Unnoticed, Jake wandered outside. And, of course, we jumped up. 'What do you mean, "Where's Jake"?' And the panic sets in, and everyone's running around the house. I knew he was in the water. I knew he wasn't in the house. Jake had fallen off the dock into a canal. Our brother-in-law found him. And they worked on him at the hospital for at least a half hour, but it was too late. MACHINE BEEPS I knew he was gone, that he was in heaven. MACHINE FLATLINES Do you think ISR training would have made a difference for Jake? We are not sure. We'll never be sure, and as a mother that really eats me up because I feel like I have failed him. How often do you get parents coming to you who have had a drowning experience with another child? > Far too often. Two or three times a month, month over month, year over year. What would your message be for new parents? Get them in the lessons. Just get them in the lessons because you never know. After the break, little Leo's first time in the water. BABY CRIES And there's your air, you see. And if ISR is saving lives, why isn't it in NZ? Well, the critics say it is all about child safety. If you want to scare a kid to death then potentially that's a good way to go. Teaching a child how to save his own life in a proven, emotionally sensitive way is not child abuse. Since when did beer have to toe the line, play the game, work for the man? INSPIRING MUSIC Since when did beer have to taste like beer or, for that matter, have beer in it? Since 1990-never ` that's when. Not Beersies ` the beer that doesn't have beer in it. 4 Seeing is believing. Water babies confident and capable of saving their own lives. CLAPPING MUSIC We have countries begging for the programme. We have over 40,000 children on our waiting list, and my goal would be for parents to at least be educated enough to know that there's an option, that a moment's inattention doesn't have to cost their baby his life. ISR puts safety first. Having taught almost 7 million lessons, Joann Barnett pushes the importance of parent education. This is never a substitute for adult supervision, so if a child falls in the pool and uses his skills, that's great, but the accident was that he got to the water unsupervised in the first place, so we take a lot of care and a lot of pride in our parent education. Are you ready for your first big day? 13-month-old Leo is having his first ISR lesson. Hi. Oh, he's adorable. His mum and dad, Amanda and Scott Rogers, are anxious. It's difficult to watch. If he wants to roll off and experiment, we'll let him and show him how to get back. So this might be his first time under water. (LAUGHS) So this might be his first time under water. (LAUGHS) BABY CRIES Here, parents look from the poolside but don't go into the water. Where are you going? Oh, you decided to check it out. There you go. BABY COUGHS BABY COUGHS And there is your air. See? There you go. There you go. BABY CRIES Do you get a lot of parents who get disturbed watching their babies learning ISR? A lot of parents do watch and decide that it's not for them because they don't want their child to cry, and we can't really do much about that, but a lot of times their fear of their child drowning does overcome their hesitation, and they do take the time to really educate themselves, and they often times turn around. There you go. Right there. Good job. Right there. Good job. BABY CRIES LOUDLY Very good. You are OK. You are doing a good job. They are in good hands, but it's hard to watch them when they flip over or look in distress. You did it. > What convinced you that this was the right way to go for your sons? Some friends of ours have lost a child through drowning, and that was what made the choice easier for us. No regrets? > No regrets? > None at all. Look at him. BABY COOS, ALL LAUGH So why in a country where so many drown each year, do we not have ISR? (SIGNS) It's hard to put it nicely. Um, I don't think a lot of it. Instructor and three-time Olympian Dean Kent believes the idea of allowing babies like Leo to self-submerge is flawed. It's going to be very very hit and miss, and that's certainly the word that we have from the people in America that are getting kids coming out of those programmes, that have a fear of the water. They just hate it, so I'm not sure if that's the positive kind of attitude we want to have around. If you want to scare a kid to death, then potentially that's a good way to go. Here at Auckland's Northern Arena, the philosophy is different to ISR. We are going to start with wheels on the bus. Parents are encouraged to get in the pool with their babies, and the emphasis is on water fun. Ours is a more holistic view. So we're focussed on educating the parent. We are focused on the education of the child in a fun environment so they learn and they enjoy themselves. Wheeee. So the parent becomes the instructor? It's a partnership between the teacher, the parent and the child. Here babies start lessons from just 2 months. What we are going to do is pull forward and splash in. OK, ready? Dean says there's a very good reason to start swimming lessons early. The earlier we get them in, the happier they are, the more normal it seems to them to be doing lessons, and we just feel we can achieve more if they're getting in really really nice and early. Ready. Go. And they even submerge the babies. The main difference when we do a submersion is there's one or two, especially with the really little dudes, and as they get more advanced, there's more submersions to a point. And if they're already crying? And if they're already crying? We don't submerge. Good job. Good job. BABY COUGHS But will children like Leo even remember how they were taught? If you think about when a child learns how to walk, or when you were learning how to walk, you fall and hit your head on the coffee table, but you're not afraid to walk. The children don't remember that, but the instructor has a responsibility to manage the emotional experience for the child too because every child is different. It's going to be a shock to the baby at some point, though? It's short and sweet. They get in. They get their work done. They get out. Would you teach ISR to your kids? Would you teach ISR to your kids? Never in a million years. There might be a market for it, but if you talk to 100% of the industry, I'd say 99.9% would probably say it was too brutal and the other 1.1 would say, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' Drowning figures show that NZ is doing better when it comes to water safety. Last year three infants drowned ` a huge improvement on a decade ago. But Dean Kent believes we can do more. What we need to start with is almost having a register of every schoolchild in NZ, and for every year they're at school from 5 till 10, they must do two weeks of swimming lessons, and they must do at least two days of beach or moving-water safety. Something which he wants government to take the lead on. If we don't catch every kid, there's going to be parents that unfortunately are not educated in this themselves. We've got to get it to the kids at school because that's our chance. Sounds like national curriculum. Sounds like national curriculum. It is, really. ISR and Northern Arena differ in their approaches to infant swimming, but one thing they agree on. The best water safety begins before school with confident babies and educated parents. I don't think there's any substitute for supervision. If a child's not supervised, then you're basically rolling the dice and praying that they're not going to die. And if you'd like to learn more about ISR, you can find the information on our Facebook page and on our Sunday TVNZ webpage. After the break, Robyn Lawley hits out at the industry that labels her plus-size. My body is just the national average of Australia, and I shouldn't be called any label. The word plus-size isn't applicable because she isn't. I'm not going on a diet. I'm not going to eat fat-free. I'm happy the way I am. Welcome back. When you look at Robyn Lawley, a gorgeous size 12, it's hard to believe that she could be labelled plus-size. The Aussie beauty, who's modelled for Ralph Lauren and graced the cover of Vogue, is now hitting out at the modelling industry, saying it encourages starvation. And she reveals the intense pressure she felt to be thin. Here's Robyn with Marie Claire editor, Jackie Frank. ETHEREAL MUSIC Mykonos is so beautiful. What do you think about the term 'plus-size'? You know, at first I was totally fine to be labelled with whatever, cos I got to work. And then as I progressed in my career, I started to realise that it was kind of a tool of manipulation, and I didn't really appreciate the word because my body was just the national average of Australia, and I shouldn't be called any label. The word 'plus-size' isn't applicable because she isn't. She looks healthy, she looks normal, she looks amazing. Beautiful. Beautiful. > Beautiful! Walk towards me, Robyn. You know what surprised me about you? When we were doing the shots, you don't like people staring at you, do you? I've done so much beach work, and sometimes the beaches have been absolutely packed, and everyone comes and stares at you, and you feel like a monkey in a cage. Bit like 'Zoolander'. Robyn, tell me about your family. You grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney. Yeah. I come from a very normal upbringing. I have two older sisters. My dad was a fireman. Modelling came up when I became a teenager. Everyone started suggesting it cos I was tall, and that's what tall girls do, I suppose. You know, when I first considered the idea of modelling, I knew that models were about half the size I was. So that's why I thought it was just really impossible, and when I went to see the agencies, you know, my weight was always the issue. At that age, of course, it was a really hard time to have that extra pressure of having to lose, not just a little amount of weight, like, a lot of weight. I'm a person who loves food, so for me it was a real struggle. I would have to count all the calories and had to` I was doing so much sport at that age, too, like competitive sport. It was really hard. I had a lot of issues with it. What is it that made you decide 'I'm not going to be a size zero. I'm not going to do that'? You know, I think there was a moment when I was around 16 with one of my Russian little friends, who was just painfully thin. Like, I was worried about her health. And, you know, I've subsequently seen so many models in the same shoe, and it's not even up to them. They have to do it to work. And that's what's crazy about it. Like, they're getting told they have to. They get measured when they go into an agency. They know if they gain weight, they're out. And I just feel so sorry for them, cos... People don't understand what starvation can do to you. It really wreaks havoc with your brain. There seems to be a revival of the athletic body, and Aussie girls lead the charge. < Ahhhhhhhh. < You've just published a cookbook called 'Robyn Lawley Eats'. Do you eat a lot? Uh, I love food. I eat heaps of food, all day, every day. It's my favourite part of the day. How do we stop women obsessing about their weight? How do we stop this weight debate? I think it takes, you know, an individual to suddenly just go, 'You know what? I'm not going on a diet. I'm not going to eat fat-free, and I'm happy with the way I am.' The more people that do that, the more we will see a change. You know, I don't eat diet. I don't eat fat-free. To me that food is disgusting and fake and ridiculously filled with chemicals. Just be happy with your body, cos when you're really confident, it shows, and it inspires other people to do the same thing. Who could ever think she would be plus-size? An update now. In September we brought you the story of Brad Smeele, the Kiwi wakeboarder who broke his neck while performing a stunt in Florida. Brad received support from all over the world following his accident, and after months of rehab, he's returned home. After three and a half months in American hospitals, Brad Smeele is on his way home. < Whoo! You're home. CHEERS And here to welcome him, some of the thousands who have stood by him; APPLAUSE < WOMAN: He's brilliant. Nice hair. his sister Monique,... Hey, Dad. ...his dad, Erik Smeele. Mm. So good to see you. It's the first time he's seen Brad in a wheelchair. You're looking good. When they said goodbye seven months ago, Brad was riding high ` a professional wakeboarder, a record-breaker. Then a catastrophic accident changed his life forever. At one stage they thought they might lose Brad. His mum, Linda, has hung in there, and now she's brought him home. And after many months, his first breath of fresh NZ air. < Yeah, it's pretty cold. < Yeah, it's pretty cold. It's lucky I can't feel any temperature from my shoulders down. At times, it was like Groundhog Day. I wake up, go to therapy and back in bed, and now the chair. It was just sort of the same thing every day, over and over again. It's definitely a tough road, but it's good to be home. Thank you. Oh, smooth. Brad's new home for now is the Auckland Spinal Rehabilitation Unit. We'll keep you updated on his progress. And lastly tonight, our thoughts are with the family of Angela Sunkel. Ange lost her battle with cancer earlier this week. When we met the 30-year-old and her husband, Raymond, last month, they had hoped to raise more than $1 million for a stem cell transplant in Seattle. But Angela's health deteriorated and she died with Raymond and her family at her side. Raymond says 'thank you' is not strong enough a word to everyone who supported them. The more than $300,000 raised will now be donated to the Leukaemia Foundation. Well, that's our show for tonight. Do join us on Facebook and Twitter, Sunday TVNZ. Thanks for joining us. Ka kite i a koe a tera wiki. See you next week. Pomarie.