October 2009     The Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare, Youth and Sport, Kate Ellis, today launched an important water safety DVD which will go to thousands of new parents.

The Living with Water DVD – a Comprehensive Guide to Water Safety for Under 5’s will be distributed to new parents through the Bounty New Mothers Bag – which reaches about 83% of new mothers in Australia each year.

“It’s Children’s Week - a time to celebrate the contribution of children to our lives and our society. But it’s also a time to think about what we can do to make their lives better.”

The DVD was produced by water safety advocate Laurie Lawrence and the Federal Department of Health and Ageing as part of the Federal Government’s $4.2 million Saving Lives in the Water measure to support water safety initiatives for young children. The Living with Water DVD promotes water safety messages for newborns, crawlers, toddlers and pre-schoolers. It includes essential information about familiarising children with water, eliminating water hazards, pool fencing, constant supervision of children around water and learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills.

“This DVD will help remind parents and carers to be vigilant supervising their children around water and to review the adequacy of safety measures like pool fences. “Water safety is everyone’s responsibility. You never know when you might be in a position to save a life,” Ms Ellis said.

The Living with Water DVD will be distributed to new parents through the Bounty New Mothers Bag and will be available free of charge from the ‘Kids Alive’ website.

From a media release by The Hon Kate Ellis MP, October 28 2009.

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