Lena Fokina: either she just killed dinner, or she's doing double baby-yoga
Yep, it’s real.
That was the first thing almost everyone wanted to know about the now-infamous “Baby Yoga with Lena Fokina” video. The swinging, flipping and lariat-like twirling of a tiny infant seemed so surreal—and the baby so unmoved by its plight—that many viewers decided it had to be a hoax.
I had a hard time watching the video, too. But I was not at all surprised that it was Russian. I’ve been going to Moscow since 1990 (I now write about Russia for Time Magazine), and I have found a Russian obsession with physical hardiness that goes far beyond pictures of Putin fishing topless. I remember going with my brother to a Soviet sanatorium—what they used to call their spa-resorts—in 1990 and finding that the main treatment there was standing in a stainless steel room while a technician sprayed us with what felt like a fire hose. A friend I’ve known for over 20 years in Moscow got baptized last year in the countryside—not in a church with a splash of water, but by stripping in the middle of a frozen lake and jumping into an ice-fishing hole while the priest looked on.
But “baby yoga,” and its corollary, dunking-a-newborn-in-the-ocean, is not just another act of toughening. The more I looked into it, the more I realized that in a certain milieu of alterna-Russians, the parents who do this are sort of like Slavic Tiger Mothers: hyperinvolved parents who want to give their child a leg up in life. “I wanted the best for my daughter,” says my friend Ivan, who baby-swung his firstborn after hearing about it in a Moscow birthing class. “So we started when she was five days old.” Seven years later, he says, she’s not only healthy, she’s fearless and advanced beyond her peers: “She started walking early, swimming early. I really think it worked.”
[The original video]
I thought if I showed Ivan this video, he would be shocked by how extreme this particular bout of baby-swinging was. Instead, he watched it like Rowlf the Dog watched Two Girls, One Cup: meh, no big deal. It is, he said, pretty much what he did with his daughter.
Until I see some peer-reviewed studies about this, I’ll leave it to others to decide whether swinging a barely conscious newborn over your shoulders does more good than harm. But I am pleased to say that we’ve tracked down the baby in the video, and she seems to be doing just fine. (Follow DadWagon on Facebook)
Still swinging: the baby from the viral video, Platona, shown here with her father, Sashka Goryun, two years after the video came out
The baby, it turns out, is a girl named Platona Goryun, who lives in Khorol, Ukraine, about three hours outside of Kiev. She was just two weeks old when she was subjected to what Fokina calls “dynamic gymnastics” for newborns in the video above. Her father, Sashka Goryun, uploaded the video just a month ago, but apparently it was filmed almost two years ago. Little Platona is, by all appearances, a healthy toddler, albeit one who still gets swung in the air quite a bit (see our baby-yoga gallery for more images of Platona and her father).
DadWagon also managed to track down Lena Fokina, the Baby Yoga guru from the original video. Fokina Skype-chatted with us from her home in Dahab, Egypt, in the Sinai Peninsula, where she lives with her daughters (who not only survived baby-swinging but also grew up to be ridiculously attractive freedive instructors, pictured below and in our photo-gallery). Fokina was generous with her time and spoke at length about family freediving, slothful Americans, and the salutary effects of being swung over your mother’s head. The interview was done in Russian and translated into English:
Thank you for chatting with DadWagon, Lena. Can you tell us first a little about yourself: where you come from, how you came to do baby yoga.
I come from far away; my homeland is in the Urals. I then lived in Moscow, and now I’m in Dahab, Egypt, my “little homeland.” We came here four years ago, and go back to Russia in the summers. As for yoga, yoga is just life, whether you are an adult or a child.
How old are you?
I’m 50, but that’s only the appearance.
Tanya Fokina, Lena's daughter, swimming in the Gulf of Aqaba with her nephew Kristian
Tell me about the courses you run in Egypt.
Our courses in Dahab are a regime of daily exercise for children and adults of different ages: yoga, extreme developmental gymnastics, freediving, getting adapted to the water, rebirthing, lectures, discussions and much more.
Um, what exactly are “extreme developmental gymnastics”
That’s what we call it when it gets scary for the parents and children and me
(just kidding). It’s actually skipping rope, climbing, all sorts of flips, trampoline, stretching…
I do Ashtanga yoga, but I’ve never heard of anything like this Baby Yoga. Is this traditional or did you invent it?
Life invented it; it was conveyed to us by the teacher and author of all these ideas, Igor Borisovich Charkovsky.
So this is a uniquely Russian form of yoga.
This yoga is for all young children.
Are your students all Russians?
Of course not!
So where do they come from?
Over the last 30 years, Charkovsky’s system has lived in Russia and has spread from there. Not everyone accepts it.
The first thing everybody here thought when they saw your baby-swinging video was “Holy shit!” Then they thought, is it real or fake? So: Is it real? If so, who is the baby?
The child was born in the Black Sea region. Her name is Platona, and she was two weeks old when we took that video. We have a lot of children like her here. They are early readers, singers, talkers, swimmers. You haven’t seen anything like it anywhere!! And there’s swimming with dolphins, scuba diving with them… Come to Dahab! (Photos of Lena and her daughters in Dahab.)
And are they early readers, talkers, and so on because of baby yoga?
Not only this. It’s just one reason.
What else makes them so talented then?
Love for each other and to one another.
I have two small children and I was, you know, careful with them when they were newborns. So it was hard for me to watch your video. It looks like it has to injure the child. Their hands? The cartilage in the joints? Their brains?
No. It makes the hands stronger.
Did you know that YouTube took the video down because it was in violation of their policy on “shocking and disgusting” content? What is your response to that?
Did they notice that the babies aren’t crying—they’re even laughing—and that this system has been used for over thirty years in Russia and the children are all alive and healthy? If you need more proof, the best thing is to come see us.
Have you heard from people who are upset about the video?
Everybody in Dahab is satisfied. What’s more, a British film crew made a documentary about us, and interviewed the parents.
At the end of your video, it looks like you’re trying to get the two-week-old baby to walk. Is mobility the goal of your baby yoga?
Yes, more mobility, and other goals. First off, more trained skills. Second, more freedom. Third, independence. We learn from nature and teach our offspring to survive. Come to Dahab; we’ll be glad to show our classes and our children. How old are your children?
Four and two years old.
The happiest age!
Da, da. You say you “teach offspring to survive,” but it looks like what you’re doing could kill them. Have you ever had an accident while swinging around a baby?
I don’t recall any. Another objective of our yoga: to teach parents and children to interact so that everything will be in harmony.
How much training do you need to do this baby yoga?
It depends on the sensibility of the child’s mother. Sometimes it only takes one training session.
Do you think mothers who are afraid of this kind of baby yoga just aren’t brave?
Yes, those people have problems of their own. One more objective here is to get the parents’ own activity and movement levels up.
Should Americans try “baby yoga” at home?
Americans should be able to do a lot of this themselves, in order to pass something on to their children. An immobile American loses their naturally given reflexes (swimming, reaching, stepping—they have machines that do this for them). That’s why, in parallel with their children, the parents learn to do these things: dive, swim, run, jump, bend and much more. Our workshop is called “family active lifestyle.”
It’s true. Some American babies are too obese to swing around over your head.
Well, exactly, then: they need the Russian way of life!
Are there lessons for baby yoga online, or do you have to go to Dahab to learn?
Online is complicated. You have to go to the guru!
You said that the baby in the video was two weeks old. Why start so young? Their bodies are so underdeveloped.
We’re talking about these reflexes they have by nature from birth. They are based in dynamic gymnastics.
Did you know that this video went viral in the United States, that there was a lot of speculation about who you and the baby were?
We know. So what? The more people find out about this, the calmer and healthier they’ll become.
I saw that you do courses in the Gulf of Aqaba. What are your “family freediving” courses?
We adapt [children] to the aquatic environment. It’s a variety of exercises for breath, swimming and diving equipment, diving at depth and free-swimming along the reef and enjoying the stunning underwater spectacle.
Hmm. I grew up near the reef in Florida. It can be amazing.
Oh, we dream of free-swimming with wild dolphins! Do you know Boris Said?
We have a lot of dolphins, but I don’t know Boris. Who is he?
He studies wild dolphins in Florida and swims with them. Children and dolphins is another big topic of Charkovsky’s.
So my children are 4 and 2 years old, but they don’t know how to swim yet. What would you do with them in Dahab?
We would get them slowly accustomed to life.
Life in general or life in the water?
Life in general. And in the water. If you can organize a seminar, gather people, arrange a space, we’ll come.
Good idea! [ed. note: this may actually be a very bad idea] I noticed in some of your videos that some women in your courses are topless. Does this create problems with the Egyptians? When I was in Hurgada, another Egyptian resort, I noticed nudity was a big problem for Egyptians.
Each country has its own traditions and you have account for that. Don’t take your own prayers into someone else’s church. So we do not wear bikinis. This is a Muslim country. Some women here even wear a niqab.
Have you ever had any legal problems in Egypt? In Russia?
I never have. I love people.
But authorities are different. They never gave you any problems for the Baby Yoga?
We are humanists! And we don’t do anything wrong. On the contrary, many Egyptian parents learn these techniques and go diving, in their niqab, with us.
So the answer is ‘no’? Because in the United States, Baby Yoga might cause you some problems.
So then we are better off in Dahab! Come visit! Thank you!
Yes. I know it’s late. Just one more question: what is the name of the English film made about you?
“дети стихии” (approximate translation: “Children of the Wild”).
For more information on Lena Fokina’s courses, visit www.fokiny.com (in Russian).
To follow DadWagon on Facebook, click here. Also swinging kids on Twitter @dadwagon.
I think is is so much worse to see what North America is doing to their children. Obesity and diabetes not to mention the amount of antibiotic medications doctors prescribe. The toxins in our federally regulated processed foods. The hormones and antibiotics in our meats and dairy. This woman obviously knows what she is doing. The baby does not seem stressed and how do you know how much force it takes to cause injury. Another point is you can’t dislocate a shoulder there is no joint only tendons and ligaments.
Momentum is what is moving this baby not force. There is very little stress on the joints. How many times have you grabbed your child by the arms and swung them around in play. You haven’t torn their arms off. Your movement would be forced not momentum like this baby.
It is not surprising to hear the mortified reactions from people who fear anything different. North Americans are small minded fearful weak people who protect themselves with their uneducated opinions. I was a national level gymnast and started training at the age of 4. This is no different than any young athlete who endures any physical training. Russians do produce some of the best athletes and thinkers in the world.
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I’m rather amused to note that the stick-people logo for DadWagon looks oddly familiar…oh, yes! The picture of Fokina holding two babies upside-down. Do compare. Then be entertained by the irony.
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Wow! How inspiring!
To all the horrified American mamas:
What about the terrible tradition of FORCING your baby to eliminate waste on themselves? Do you ever stop to consider how terrible and harmful that is to the baby? You don’t think that the baby would be much happier and less stressed if you would communicate with your baby and allow them to eliminate waste away from themselves like any respectable human wants?
Should I go as far and say that any mother who forces her child, be them 1 day or 1 year, to wear a diaper should have her child taken away and charged with inhumane acts to a baby?
Get over yourselves and see the big picture….
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You can clearly see the child crying and confused when you put it down after 5 mins off child abuse. Never ever do this to your child. It can cause braindamage, pulled arms and legs off of socket, break the spine, kill it organs and much much more.
ARE SHE OUT OF HER MIND. THAT IS CHILD ABUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!
I GET SICK. THIS WOMAN SHOULD LOSE THE CUSTODY OF HER CHILD AND BE SENT TO PRISON. THAT IS NOT, AND I REPEAT, NOT OK!! I AM A MEDICINE STUDENT AND I KNOW FOR SURE THAT THAT BABY CAN BE DAMAGED REALLY BADLY. SHE IS TWO WEEKS OLD AND HER BONES HAVEN’T EVEN BEGAN TO GROW, WHICH MEANS THAT ANY KIND OF STRETCHING KAN TEAR THE BABYS TISSUES OFF.
I GET SICK. THAT WOMAN IS NOT HUMAN…SHE IS A MONSTER
This is plain stupidity.
Im a doctor from Sweden. This is abuse! Simple as that.
Please stop now, and realise what damage you do to these pore babies.
They can among athers be brain damaged.
I know Lena and Igor Charkovsky
they are amazing people with a very tender loving heart.
i saw them help a few babies and know their work is unique and only deep understanding and knowledge could bring to life their skills and messge of health and freedom to the world.
as a phisician i have seen them save babies and i trust their work and dediction is radiating the truth of who they are and their contribution to our world.
Can someone please stop this crazy woman!
Im a mother, and i cried when i watched it.
She must be sick? Why has she not been arrested?
Im a doctor from Sweden. Please do not copy thos woman.
This is child abuse! They can be seriously brain damaged.
It was so painful to watch. Please make this woman stop!
In 2011 this should not happen. Im a yoga teachter from Denmark. I have been praticing yoga for 15 years.
I do not know what to say. It is really sad that people believe that was this obviously sick woman is doing, is good for the babies.
They are babies!!!!! They can not talk or defend themselves. Their bodies are not strong enough.
Ask any doctors around the world.
I really hope she stopes before she does som real damage to a child.
Im shocked!!!!!
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pfft I put myself in danger all the time skateboard, surfboard, bungee jumping,luge…
And I’d think if a baby broke a bone, it would heal faster than me breaking a bone. Sheesh, babies are delicate human beings, not wimpy sheets of paper. They’ll survive. In fact they have (according to her now adult children)
It is child abuse.
Parents who follow her advice must be brain damaged them selves.
Do you beleive doctors all over the world, or do you believe this woman who apparently dosent care that experts state that this is dangerus and painfull for the babies.
You dont have to educated, or a parent, to understand this is abuse. Their faces are blue!!!!
Try this your self if you think it is so good for you.
Im so shocked that some parents follow her advice, i just can not believe what i see…..
And Sara. How old are you ? 13?
You say: “And I’d think if a baby broke a bone, it would heal faster than me breaking a bone_”
You think….yeah. Well, ask any doctors.
I guess youre not a mother your selves….or, i hope youre not….
Baby we shoud start take babies skateboarding, sice they survive it all….
This is an old granny-style of welcoming a newborn practiced in India over ages, though it is a bit new to the newer generation, yet it is something that has been practiced on babies to the great awe of people, just telling nothing and leaving it to the old Daiima ‘calling for an old granny midwife’. I am from Mauritius and everyone decending from the indian generation is not new to it. We do not call it yoga, because supposedly by so doing the child’s system is boosted when the latter is made to cry by this method. Ther more such tit-bits which is taken as normal and must practice on newborns. Unfortunately the new generation babies are just born in Neo-natal clinics or even in-vitro and the modern midwives have hardly the time to give such therapy to the new born.
I believe that she genuinely loves children, and believes she’s doing the best by them. Am I wary of the practice? Absolutely. But I’m not an expert in this kind of thing. I’m pretty sure that the baby was crying at one point, and seems more disoriented at the end of the video than the beginning — but I could be totally off-base.
Honestly, I’m more off-put by the smug attitude of the whole thing, though I suspect a good chunk of that has to do with losing some context and vocal cues between Skype and text.
I recall psychology research that shows that ‘swinging’ causes neural growth in children (which is why swingsets are popular), and some experimental centers in the US now treat the retarded with special high-tech seats that swing them around for an hour.
That baby and others Lena ‘treated’ are now, she claims, “early readers, singers, talkers, swimmers”?
But cultural blindness: we accept circumcision in the US, but balk when a Russian lady swings her babies. (but, err, I gotta admit… I just hope she never drops one..!)
Im sure the baby loves the salt water up the nose. Kind of high risk isnt it? What if the baby snorts some salt water up its nose or swallows some.
This is heart wrenching to watch. You can see the baby crying mid-way through the video. I think if there wasn’t music you’d hear it. I also agree that the baby seemed disoriented in the end. Wouldn’t you be a bit after being swung around for that long? I wonder if she’s ever heard of shaken baby syndrome.
She’s also evasive in her answer when asked if she’s ever had an accident.
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I am crazy. I have drank too much in my life, and now all my brain cells are dead. I like to whip babies around because its fun, and some parents actually believe that it’s healthy! haha what a joke! i am just bored, and slightly retarded.
caterina, speaking of the suicide rate, you are completely disingenious in yuor comment, and this is to say the least. The US suicide rate is not at all among the ‘highest in the world’ as you put it, in fact Russia and other countries which were part of the erstwhile Soviet Union has way higher suicide rates than the US. It is actually Russia and Lithuania that have the highest suicide rate in the world. How ironic, huh? Is that Lena Fokina Russian by any chance or is this just a figment of our collective imagination?? Here, some figures for you. Lithuania (42 suicides per 100,000), Russia (38), Belarus (35) and Kazakhstan (28] and Ukraine (26). In the US the ratio is 1 in 100,000. OK??? So, try at least to be accurate when you post on this forum and instead of attacking other’s people as too opinionated (they are entitled to their opinion, right??) you’d better do some research and get your figures straight.
http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2007/05/11/suicide-rates-of-the-world/
http://fathersforlife.org/health/who_suicide_rates.htm
lili says:
Russians do produce some of the best athletes and thinkers in the world.
Lili, so does the US. In fact the US has won more gold in the summer Olympics than any other country in the world in the history of the Olympic games (see link below). Also the US has won more Nobel Prizes than Russia. The US is ranked number 1 in the world with the most Nobel Prize laureates: 270 (Russia ranks number 8 with only 14). Your comment is ignorant, the fact that Russia has good athletes is not a an indication of the state of health of the general public in that country. Also the fact that the US ranks so well both in athletic competitions or in the scientific research field is by no means a good indicator of the state of the US public education system or the public health system. So, calm down a little before jumping to wacky conclusions.
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0771580.html
http://www.aneki.com/nobel.html
Glen says:
January 27th, 2011at 9:44 am(#)
(but, err, I gotta admit… I just hope she never drops one..!)’
you nailed it! this is the problem, I am no doubting her good intentions or her confidence and trust in her abilities and method, but it is irresponsible in the sense that she could experience a moment of dizziness herself or anything similar (a moment when she does not focus well enough, etc) and simply drop that baby. what comes to mind is Michael Jackson dangling his newly born from the window (or was it balcony?) of some hotel. as far as I remember everybody was appalled and mortified and the media crucified him for that.
It’s quaint how we’re all demonstrating our American small-mindedness by quickly railing against something we don’t understand. Or how we like to shelter each-other for fear.
What if she drops one!?
What if my sheltered child ages to 120 years without ever living?
The risk of being dropped by a professional tosser is probably lower than the risk of teaching our kids to run away from life.
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To Peggy who said “If this were ever to on in the US…ABUSE is written all over it!!!” Well I’m an American and in America if we yell at a darn baby or child it spells ABUSE. Not ever thing you disagree with is ABUSE, so Please Get A Life and let people raise their own children and Shut The Heck Up!!!!! For the others that think Baby Yoga is wrong.Please tell me, why do we America’s condemn others when we disagree with their actions. People who live in other country’s have their own customs and traditions why can’t we America’s learn to respect what we don’t do or believe in. Our ignorance will be our down fall. We need to stop trying to control those that think difference from us. If that lady feel it’s OK to swing her baby and it’s been a tradition in her country for 30 years or more, then who are you to say something bad about her. One last thing, to me you need to raise your own children much better.
c’est clair que ça donne envie de courir tout de suite. voir geuler, en tout cas avec un tel traitement je suis sur qu’on deviens vite très autonome>>> “Sauve qui peut, laissez moi partir” seront ses premiers mots.. ou “pitié”… avant quelques “maman?” très intérrogatifs a 1 mois :lol:.
je ris mais c’est nerveux.. surement de la même façon qu’il saura courir.
Why why do this this baby yoga thug it’s terrible why I can’t even tell you how discussed with who ever does this
Brilliant article. Lending credence to this viral video for the masses to swallow wholesale…
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This woman is sick! I am amazed to see that lots of people support her…
What’s the use on being an “early walker” if in the end all of them will start walking anyway? Is it worth to put a baby in danger so that she or he can start walking a month before the others (in case the baby survives, ofcourse!)?
Ofcourse she will say she have never had an accident with a baby… but I am sure some of them must have had some brain damage.
Maybe she never heard about the shaken baby syndrom!
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If this becomes the next Olympic sport – Baby Tossing – the Russians are going to destroy us.
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this is wrong she should be arrested…. i strongly think that this should be considered child abuse!!!!
Yes, it was horrible to watch! But I watched it again. I realize she SWINGS the baby but it is not a JERKING movement. It seems dangerous if the person isnt train to do it. I dont think it should be done on newborns or that long period of time to anyone. In fact I have an 8 month old baby and learned that in the hospital, when babies are born doctors do a variety of tests to check on their reflexes and that includes letting the babies fall on their back!!!! Did anyone knew doctors do this to every child born in America??? I guess not because you people are not sueing all neonatologyst in America for this… That is called MORO Test and they do others I dont remember their name. Still, people should not do this at home. I am looking for a baby yoga class and I wouldnt care if it has some hard excercises for my daugther to build up strengh and flexibility, but I woul not go that far like throwing her in the air. And people should be able to express their opinions, even if is an ignorant one or offensive in nature, thats called freedom of speech in a democratic country!!! People have the right to be idiots!!! That includes the Fokina lady…