Pregnant mother saves group of drowning children at Michigan beach

Alyssa DeWitt saved a group of children. Photo / Facebook

A pregnant mother has been called a hero for saving a group of children from drowning at a Michigan beach.

Alyssa DeWitt, who is five months pregnant with her fourth child, wrote about the heart-stopping incident on her Facebook page and used it as an opportunity to remind parents to teach their children water safety.

DeWitt had taken her three young children for a relaxing swim at Manistee's First Street Beach in Michigan, US, but it quickly took a horrifying turn when she saw a group of girls under the age of 15 waving their arms from the water.

They were struggling, so she sprang into action. First, she pulled her own children out of the water, before running to the edge of a pier to get closer to the girls who needed help.

"A group of kids were getting pulled out into the lake and slammed against the pier wall," she wrote of the awful scene that confronted her on that windy day. "They could barely keep their heads above water.

"They were literally drowning in front of my eyes and there was not one person on that side of the beach I could scream to for help. It was empty."

DeWitt called for help, but even that proved difficult.

"I called 911, but I couldn't hear a thing with the wind and waves so I just prayed they could hear me screaming for help and worked to pull those kids up the side of the pier.

First Street Beach in Manistee. Photo / Flickr

"One of those girls looked at me with so much fear in her eyes and told me she was going to die."

She promised the girl she wouldn't let that happen, and then said she felt the adrenaline take over her body.

"I pulled them up the pier wall, with the waves slamming into me and throwing the kids all over the place, pulling with all my might on wet slippery hands, and almost going over the edge myself a few times."

Reflecting on the close call, she said "you never expect to find yourself in that situation" and that it was pure luck that she was on that side of the beach that day as she usually goes to the other side.

She said it was a moment she will never forget.

Manistee City Police Chief Josh Glass called Dewitt a "hero" for her actions that day.

"When you have someone who puts their safety aside to help strangers, it's amazing," he told Today.

"She could've easily said 'it's too dangerous to go out there' but she stayed and her tenacity absolutely saved those kids.

"When we have an everyday, ordinary citizen – a mum at the beach with her own kids – that just puts the (superhero) cape on and gets to work and does something so heroic and so above expectations, I think it's important that we recognise her."

He said the children sustained minor injuries and are "doing well given the circumstances".