Have you heard about the French and their vaginas"
In France, any woman who has delivered a baby gets a prescription for 10 free physical therapy sessions to ?re-educate? her pelvic floor?you know, that collection of muscles, ligaments, tendons and fascia that supports your pelvic organs, helps you have enjoyable sex and stops you from peeing in your pants.
Emily Mazo-Rizzi, an American who has lived in Paris for nearly 20 years, happily took advantage of this government-funded rehabilitation when her first baby was born in 2012. ?I have no desire to be incontinent or have a prolapsed uterus or bladder,? says the Pilates instructor who just had her second child in France.
The appointments, which started around six weeks postpartum, went like this: A specially trained midwife, wearing a medical glove, stuck her finger into Mazo-Rizzi?s vagina to feel what was going on while Mazo-Rizzi attempted to contract and squeeze different parts of her pelvic floor muscles. After every session, she was sent away with homework, which usually involved three exercises. When her newborn is six weeks old, she will begin therapy again. ?In France, most women do it,? says Caroline Mollard, a physiotherapist in Paris who specializes in pelvic floor and perineal rehabilitation. ?Most of them have talked to friends who have done it, or moms or grandmas tell them to do it because they have problems controlling their urine.?

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