Why France Pays for Postpartum Women to “Re-Educate” their Vagina

In France, Social Security funds la rééducation périnéale, up to 20 sessions of physical therapy intended to firm and tone the postnatal pelvic floor. The humiliation is apparently worth it.

By BONNIE ROCHMAN

France has been in the parenting headlines a good bit lately.

First there was the release of Bringing Up Bébé, a treatise on why French kids are better eaters and sleepers, more well-mannered and less prone to meltdowns than American children. Author Pamela Druckerman built the case that France knows a thing or two about raising children that U.S. parents have yet to grasp.