You sit fully clothed on a chair. Can that really rebuild a pelvic floor?
A neutral look at what Emsella and other pelvic floor chairs actually do, what a course involves, who they genuinely suit, and the step almost every clinician asks you to try first.
Quick answer
An Emsella chair is a clinic device that uses high intensity focused electromagnetic energy, known as HIFEM, to make your pelvic floor muscles contract for you while you sit fully clothed. It is a real, regulated technology, and for some women, particularly those who genuinely cannot find or hold a contraction on their own, it can be a useful addition. It is also expensive, sold in courses, usually paid out of pocket, and it is not what the guidelines point to first. The UK's NICE guidance treats properly taught pelvic floor muscle training as first line care for stress urinary incontinence, with a trial of at least three months before escalating. Learn the contraction properly first, then decide whether a chair is worth your money.
Minimum trial of supervised pelvic floor muscle training recommended as first line treatment for stress urinary incontinence (NICE guideline NG123).
The contraction volume in that guideline: eight contractions, three times a day, done consistently.
What one Mumma Glow guide costs, once, with no subscription and no clinic appointment.
What an Emsella chair actually is
Emsella is a treatment chair made by BTL. You sit on it fully clothed while the device delivers focused electromagnetic pulses to the pelvic region, and those pulses cause the pelvic floor muscles to contract involuntarily, far more times in one session than you could manage yourself. Clinics commonly advertise sessions of around 28 minutes, sold as a course of roughly six sessions across a few weeks, often with top up sessions suggested later.
It belongs to a broader family of clinic based pelvic floor treatments that also includes electrical stimulation probes and biofeedback assessment. The thinking behind all of them is the same: if the muscle is hard to find, hard to switch on, or too weak to train usefully by itself, give it outside help to get started. If the anatomy is still fuzzy to you, our plain English explainer on what the pelvic floor actually is and does is worth five minutes before you read on.
Give the technology its due
It is easy to be cynical about a chair you sit on in a clinic, so it is only fair to start with the genuine strengths.
- It removes the technique problem. The single biggest reason home pelvic floor work fails is that many women are not contracting the right muscles at all, or are bearing down instead of lifting. A chair does not care whether you have found the muscle. It contracts it regardless.
- The volume is enormous. No home routine comes close to the number of contractions a single session produces.
- It is genuinely non invasive. Nothing is inserted, you stay dressed, and you can drive yourself home afterwards.
- It suits women who cannot do the work another way. Where pain, scarring, severe weakness or a complete inability to locate the muscle is blocking progress, a clinician may reasonably suggest assisted stimulation as a way in.
Those are real advantages, and for a particular group of women they matter a great deal.
What it does not do
A chair contracts a muscle. It does not teach you to coordinate that muscle with your breath, your deep abdominals and the way you lift your baby forty times a day. That coordination is where most postpartum symptoms actually live, which is why squeezing alone is so rarely the whole answer.
It also does nothing about pressure management. If you hold your breath every time you heave the pram into the boot, the load travelling down through your pelvic floor is unchanged by the fact that you sat on a chair last Tuesday. Our piece on how intra abdominal pressure works after birth explains why that matters more than most people expect.
And it does not diagnose. Leakage after birth has several possible drivers, prolapse among them, and no device can tell you which one you are dealing with. If your symptoms include heaviness or a dragging sensation, read what postpartum prolapse actually is and get assessed properly rather than self prescribing a treatment.
How the options compare
| Option | What it does | Typical cost pattern | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pelvic floor muscle training at home | You learn and perform the contraction yourself, then progress it into daily movement | Free, or the one off cost of a guide | Almost every mum, as the starting point |
| Pelvic health physiotherapy | Assessment, diagnosis, hands on technique correction and a tailored plan | Per appointment, sometimes partly covered | Anyone with symptoms. The gold standard first stop |
| Home biofeedback trainer | Shows you on a phone app whether you are contracting correctly | One off device purchase, some with app subscriptions | Mums who want feedback without a clinic visit |
| Emsella or a similar chair | Contracts the muscle for you using electromagnetic pulses | Course of sessions at clinic prices, plus top ups | Women who cannot activate the muscle themselves, usually alongside other care |
| Surgery | Structural repair | Highest, with recovery time | A last resort after conservative care has been tried |
If it is the home device tier you are weighing up, we looked at that separately in our honest take on whether pelvic floor trainers are worth buying.
Questions worth asking a clinic before you pay
Marketing in this category is enthusiastic. A few straight questions will tell you quickly whether a provider is being careful with you.
- Who assesses me first, and are they a pelvic health clinician?
- How long after birth do you require before treating, and why?
- What is your screening process around breastfeeding, an IUD, or any metal implant? A careful provider raises these without being prompted.
- What specific evidence are you relying on for a situation like mine, and may I see it?
- What is the full course price including top ups, and what happens if it does not help?
- Will you also teach me to do the contraction myself, or does the treatment simply stop when the course ends?
That last question matters most. A muscle that is only ever contracted by a machine has not learned anything.
The honest verdict
Emsella is neither a scam nor a shortcut. It is an assisted stimulation tool that makes most sense for women who have genuinely tried guided pelvic floor training and still cannot get the muscle to respond, ideally chosen with a pelvic health physiotherapist rather than instead of one. If nobody has yet checked whether your contraction is correct, paying for a course of clinic sessions is a very expensive way to skip a step that costs almost nothing. Results vary from mum to mum, whichever route you take.
The cheap step that comes first
Almost every clinician you speak to wants the same thing before anything else: a properly taught contraction, done consistently, for long enough to judge it fairly. That is not glamorous and it is not what the advertising pushes, but it is the step the guidelines actually rest on. Doing it well needs clear instruction and a plan you can follow while the baby naps, not a subscription you forget to cancel. We wrote about that trade off in one time programs versus monthly subscriptions.
Start with the part that is not optional
Mumma Glow is the affordable, one time, no subscription option, the budget alternative to programs like MUTU. The Complete Postpartum Body Reset bundle walks you through pelvic floor and deep core work you can do at home in short sessions, with no monthly fee and no clinic booking. Use code GLOW20 for 20% off. It is general education rather than individual treatment, and results vary from mum to mum.
Frequently asked questions
How long after birth can you use an Emsella chair?
Providers set their own minimum, and most will not treat in the early postpartum weeks. Ask the specific clinic, and expect any careful provider to want you past your postnatal check and properly assessed first.
Is Emsella covered by insurance or Medicare?
It is generally offered privately and paid for out of pocket. Coverage rules differ by country and by policy, so check with your own insurer rather than relying on the clinic. We cover the wider question in our piece on what postpartum treatment insurance and Medicare will and will not pay for.
Does it hurt?
It is usually described as a strong tingling or tapping sensation with the muscles visibly working. It should not be painful, and you should tell the operator straight away if it is.
Do I still need to do pelvic floor exercises afterwards?
Yes. Assisted stimulation does not teach coordination, timing or pressure control, and those are the parts that carry over into coughing, lifting and running. Treat any device as an addition to training, never a replacement for it.
What should I try before booking a course?
Get assessed by a pelvic health physiotherapist if you can, and give a properly taught home programme a genuine three month run. Our guide to what actually happens at a pelvic floor physio appointment takes the mystery out of that first visit.
Sources: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline NG123, urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse in women; NHS guidance on pelvic floor exercises; American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) patient guidance on pelvic floor disorders; BTL Emsella manufacturer product information and published clinic session details.
This article is general education and not medical advice. Mumma Glow is not affiliated with BTL, Emsella or any clinic offering these treatments. Results vary from mum to mum. Please speak to your GP, midwife or a women's health physiotherapist about your own symptoms before starting or paying for any treatment.