The keel...

As my mum's belly keeps growing, her centre of gravity is slowly moving to the belly! This is not yet a problem when she is walking (I say yet as it might get worse as me and the womb continue to grow), -but this change is particularly evident when my mum is swimming free-style in the pool. There the gravity sort of pulls her belly down, giving it a hanging shape (with the result that I feel that I'm floating in free air, which is fantastic). One might think that this causes resistance to her swimming so that she goes slower, or that her belly tends to pull her towards the bottom of the pool where she is forced to swim in apnea - causing the guards to throw themselves in the water trying to save her!!! But no such thing happens! In fact, after her last training in the pool, she was wondering if it was possible that the boat's keel was invented by a pregnant lady all those hundreds of years ago...!!! For, just as the keel gives the ship a greater directional control and stability in water, my mum's growing belly gives her stability and makes her resist to side rocking -she simply swims better! This sensation, added to the weightlessness that one feels in water, makes swimming extremely pleasant for my mum who, mind you, never really liked swimming free-style -but now she's enjoying it a lot!

Maybe my mum could become rich designing swimming costumes (for non-pregnant women), with a hydrodynamic keel* in the belly region!!!

*Orders will be taken on www.keelcostumes.it
once the patent has been obtained and the idea
sold to a big swimsuit-producer