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.

Post-Natal Care In France: How I Got My Vagina Back In Shape

By Claire Lundberg 

Last week I began re-educating my vagina.

Let me explain: I live in France.

Shortly after my husband and I moved to Paris, I became pregnant, which was a relief, because I would get fat for a legitimate biological reason, not just because of all the pain au chocolat. When I gave birth to our daughter last November, my husband and I spent five government-sponsored days in the maternity ward at Clinique Leonardo Da Vinci, where we learned that French hospital meals come with a cheese course and that as part of my postpartum treatment I would be prescribed 10 to 20 sessions of la rééducation périnéale. This is a kind of physical therapy designed to retrain the muscles of the pelvic floor, including the vagina, and is one of the cornerstones of French postnatal care. Two months after our daughter was born, I summoned the courage to teach my vagina some new tricks.