Slinky

Today I used the slinky as an analogy for the vagina. It's a little odd and quite funny to me, but I think it works. Let me explain...


My client was a first time mom, a few weeks away from her due date, and very worried about how "parts that she really likes are about to get destroyed" by the birth of her baby. I kept trying to tell her how our bodies are made to labor and birth naturally but she was having none of it. My usual responses were not cutting it. There was a poster on the exam room wall that diagrams the female reproductive tract. I start pointing out the structure of the vagina and the rugae - the many folds along its length - and how they are designed to unfold, open and allow the baby to pass through. And that's when the slinky popped in my head. So I told her to think about a slinky - how it is compact and can stretch out to great length then return to the same compact size and not be destroyed. It seemed to work, and I have a new analogy!