Sometimes I see a picture that is removed from a social media site, like Facebook, and I understand why. Even if I don’t find it disturbing, I can appreciate how it might be too graphic. However, sometimes I just don’t get it. For example, when I was banned from FB for 3 days for posting this picture of a placenta.
Recently, a few women shared birth pictures in our closed BWF Support group on Facebook. Someone was reporting the pictures, because at least 3 women had pictures removed from our group and were put in a ‘FB time out’ because of it. It is one thing to have pictures viewed by public, but this is a CLOSED BIRTH GROUP.
I did not get upset and I don’t care to try to figure out who or control the situation. What I can do though, is make lemonade out of lemons. There are about 2600 women in the Support Group. Which is wonderful. Sharing these pictures on my blog though, they will be seen by thousands of people. Many more than in our group. So the goal our ‘troll’ was trying to accomplish, backfired. All they did was make me find a way to share these pictures with even more people.
Birth is a normal part of life. Trying to cover it up, hide it, ban it and censor is ludicrous and I won’t allow it. So, if vaginas and nipples offend you when in the context of birth and breastfeeding, hit the ‘red X’ now and walk away! You’ve been warned.
Haylea’s picture of her vacuum assisted birth was removed from our group. While it might be ‘graphic’, it is actually interesting and educational. Most women (or people for that matter) have no idea what a vacuum assisted birth looks like!
“I posted the attached picture to BWF Support, and it was reported by someone in the group. It’s a very emotional picture for me. I was induced (which I struggled terribly with) at 39 weeks for IUGR by my midwives. While pushing, my little ones heart rate dropped drastically. I managed to push her out in 10 minutes and my midwives instructed me to catch her myself. In these pictures, I had taken off part of my t-shirt before delivery for skin to skin. This is me meeting my first child, for the first time, and finding out she had a giant knot in her cord. One of my midwives said she is a miracle.” ~Gail Elliott
This birth photo is another amazing moment captured! This BWF mom shares this, “First photo of my gorgeous baby boy born 36w2d after he was “evicted” due to my developing preeclampsia. My student midwife did an amazing job catching him, she was so gentle and caring.”
Recommended Reading
Tree of Life, Vernix, and a Bubble of Support
The Birth of Sicily Rose {Postpartum Hemorrhage, Vanishing Twin Syndrome}
Logan’s Birth Story {Med-Free Hospital Birth}
Calm Water Birth {Every Little Thing Is Going To Be Alright}
My Fearless Birth {Home birth turned hospital}
Labor of Love, Home Birth Clip
An Intimate Home Birth Story Photographed and Written by a Best Friend- An Unassisted, Lotus Birth Surrounded by Family Only
- A Magical Birth
My CBAVBAC – Cesarean Birth After VBAC
52 Comments
Samantha
Thank you *so much* for sharing my photo!
Svea Boyda-Vikander
People’s priorities are so messed up… Thanks for posting these beautiful pictures, looking at them made my night!
Kasie
beautiful photos. thank you for posting them… & thank you to all the mamas for sharing.
Gail
Awesome post January, thanks so much!!
Lori
Thanks for sharing! I was wondering what people meant by extending their babies time with their cord attached and now I know! Such beautiful pictures.
Bonnie B Matheson
Beautiful photos….Good for you!
Courtney
I’d like to know more about the picture of the placenta in the bowl still connected to the baby. I know that it’s good to wait until the cord stops pulsating, but I was under the impression that the placenta would still be connected to mom while that was happening. The picture is amazing as it captures ALL of a birth- so cool.
I also love the one of the baby nursing at the breast that’s “3x bigger than the baby’s head”- so reminiscient of my little bean’s first days with me.
Thanks for doing all this, birth is SO NORMAL and shouldn’t be censored at all!
Liz F
It’s called a lotus birth–the placenta, cord, etc are all allowed to remain attached to the baby until it naturally dries off on its own (usually a few days, no more than a week.) http://www.lotusfertility.com/Lotus_Birth_Q/Lotus_Birth_QA.html
Kari
Love it! some very beautiful pictures
Euniece
I’m from Singapore. I read your blog regularly. Thanks for sharing all those beautiful pictures.
MeShell
Love the pictures. I have many of my son crowning, and his head poking out, and me grabbing him. They are the most beautiful pictures. I printed them out to put i nhis baby book, and my sister(mind you the one taking the photos to start) said aren’t those inappropriate to put in there. I said no, its birth, a wonder thing.
Jennifer G
these pictures are amazing and wonderful. how people can report them on facebook is just ridiculous. they are such beautiful pictures and amazing xx
Jennifer G
i forgot to add i have lots of pictures of my second and third sons crowning and being born and also after, they amaze me to look back on. xxx
Keah
<3
C. Beth
I hope my kids occasionally glimpse the nipple of a nursing mother. I like for them to see body parts being used for their intended purposes.
That’s why even my 6-year-old has looked at birthing photos with me. It’s a vagina. Babies come out of it. Voila! Pretty cool!
Thanks for sharing these. 🙂
Eve
thank you so much for those pics made me cry, can`t wait to see my new baby,and take lots of photos.
Denise
Thank you so much for including my picture in your post! I think all these pictures are absolutely beautiful!!!
Lynette Kendall
Thank you for sharing these in spite of the ridiculous people on FB. If they don’t want to see childbirth pictures, then why on earth are they a part of your “closed group”?????? I don’t get it either. They either do not have children yet, or they are jealous that they didn’t have a beautiful birth experience. Either way, it is very immature of them and of FB for caving to their childish demands to remove the pics. They’re beautiful!
Ashley
The sad thing is, it was probably her friends or family that reported the photo. I think it is incredible and absolutely beautiful!
Hollie
Beautiful!! Thanks ladies and Mrs. Bwf for sharing such intimate moments.
Sarah Jane
Why are people joining a PRIVATE group if they’re not going to agree with the pictures shown? There’s NOTHING sexual about these pictures and birth is an everyday even that we should not be afraid to speak about. Going back to fume!!
Samantha
Thank you for posting these beautiful pictures! Why this is a debate amazes me. Birth is beautiful and breastfeeding is natural.
Robin
Thank you for being their voice. You are a warrior for all of us January
Elysia
Beautiful!! All of them are simply stunning!!
Mary Margaret
all I can say is if u don’t wanna look at them then don’t!!
sarah
woah, Julie’s waterbirth picture is an awesome picture, its straight from a dream! these are all pictures i’d love seeing in my fb timeline, great moments of birth captured w photos!
Sophie
So incredibly beautiful! The human body is an amazing, wondrous thing. Thank you mamas, for sharing your precious photos :o)
Judy
The body is a beautiful thing, and so is childbirth. If you have never gone thru it you would never understand. If you don’t like the pictures then don’t look at them….
Mae Redmond
Awesome photos!!! This is what we actually go through. It is raw and graphic, and all the more beautiful because of it.
Amber Loschert
I have been following your FB page and blog for awhile and it upsets me that members must be reporting the pictures. Some pictures and stories are so beautiful and amazing I have tears rolling down my cheeks as I read. The above pictures are beautiful in my eyes. I just don’t understand. Thank you for posting them.
Jodie Moss
I am a part of your closed group and cant believe some of these were reported! wow, thankyou for sharing them again
maggie lawrence
Even though I have never had the experience of being a mother and never will at this point, I can truly see what a beautiful thing childbirth is, thank you for sharing such beautiful pictures, shame on face book for removing something so natural.
Reannan Keene
Ahhh….such beautiful pictures of life. I will never understand how that is seen as inappropriate. Thank you mama <3
Hollie
I have a question.. how long does it usually take for FB to remove a picture in question? I’ve had my nude maternity shots on for about 2 months now and I posted about 100 of our birth from our photograher photos all either having crowning, nipple or breastfeeding in them. Mine are not private albums. They are open to all of my friends. Just curious if it’s actually YOUR friends or group members actually reporting the individual pictures?
Carissa
Thanks for sharing the pictures on here! I really enjoyed them, especially the one with the placenta in a bowl in the water still attached to the baby…very awesome!
Michala A-D
Thank you for sharing such beautiful photos. It amazes me people have the time and energy to devote to reporting as offensive something so natural yet our children are surrounded by sexualised images eveyday and no one batts an eyelid.
Cedar Cat
Right!? And you can almost smell their fear as they see such powerful and real images. Women birthing the world, and yes, you. Nurturing you at her breast, caring for you, loving you. They fear the Power-Over that they wield, and fail to grasp the existence of Power-With that we as women possess. Mother loves her children. Thank you for sharing these beautiful images of loving birth experiences.
Green Blessings!
Lauren Dootson
Hey there! They shouldn’t have removed the photo of you nursing your child. There have been issues with this on another page I’m a “fan” of, The Leaky B@@b and Mama’s Milkies. They did some digging, and I can’t remember what part of the terms it’s stated on facebook, but it’s there, that any picture of a child engaged in nursing is not inappropriate and will not be removed from facebook. If they baby isn’t actually engaged at the breast, they can remove it, but would review it before hand to determine if it was offensive or not. It is specifically stated in the TOS regarding pictures of nursing mothers.
jaime m
They are still removing loads of breastfeeding pictures. Often enough that there is a group about it: https://www.facebook.com/StopHarassingKwasnicaAndALLBreastfeedingWomen
Haylea
I just wanna throw this out there: I’ve been suspended TWICE for the vacuum pic! Totally worth it though!
Katie
Thank you for sharing this pictures! They are so moving, powerful and BEAUTIFUL!!
Den
I think that there was no problem with those pictures and especially as they were on a birth group! if people did not want to see it don’t go on it! Also I have come across various pages on Facebook with almost naked women.. now that’s pornographic! beautiful pictures by the way very moving.
Ann
I enjoyed each and every picture. In my eyes, birth is beautiful and it should be viewed as the most natural way to enter the world.
Thank you for sharing and wanting to educate….
Michelle
OF COURSE THEY REMOVED THEM, THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL AND NATURAL…AND WE CAN’T HAVE THAT ON FB, NOW CAN WE???!!! SMH AT THE UTTER RIDICULOUSNESS OF FB’S PRIORITIES, OR THE ACTUAL LACK OF THEM! Thank You All for sharing the most beautiful and intimate time of your lives families! <3
Erin Woytiuk
Beautiful, awe inspiring, emotional, love them all!!!
Alyce
Not that I have experienced this myself yet, but just a few more examples of Facebook’s double-standards…. I have seen photos of bare-breasts and simulated sex-scenes on some of my step-daughter’s friends’ pages (they are all over 21, but doens’t matter). I view a lot of them as highly offensive for that particular arena, but Facebook does not remove them. All birth, breatfeeding, placenta, etc photos I find very educational!!!! And wish that facebook allowed more of them… Also when it comes to young children, my younger brother’s ex posted a photo of my then 3year old niece sunbaking nude – both myself and my mum asked her nicely to remove them, as we were afraid of the photo being picked up by a peadophile (my mum was especially concerned, as she works with police officers who have arrested people who have downloaded exact pics like that from peoples facebook pages for unfortunate reasons), but she took offense and blocked my mum from her page. Mum reported the photo as offensive to Facebook, but they did not remove it…..
What a world we live in…. :o(
Linda
Simply BEAUTIFUL!
Kristen
I have never been through child birth and I think these photos are invaluable. We are made to procreate and everyone hiding all this is crazy. I am scared of having a baby and want role models like all of the women on here and wish I had been brought up with more knowledge and photos like these. The more research I do, the less scary it becomes. It really is a miracle.
Sarah jones
All of these pictures are wonderful. What amazes me is how so many people can be offended by natural beauty especially when sexualized/pornographic images of girls and women are so readily available. It appears to me (and sorry to be blunt) that society would rather see a girl with a penis or object thrust into her orifices than a baby feeding from its mother. Crazy.
Beautiful pictures, thank you for sharing!
Ros
Wow wish I had photos like this of all four of mine. In my day it would have been unheard of.
They are beautiful and should be made available for all to see the truth and the miracle of actually being born. Maybe the world would be just a little bit brighter.
heathermcc
i love these pictures! specially the two kids in the sprinkler! we let our two year old play naked in the water all the time and i would be in a rage if someone tried telling me that was inappropriate!! thank you so much for sharing these, no matter the picture they always warm my heart!!
Emily Dawson
I think these “People” on FB are horrible!Horrible because they hate the natural cycle of life,these pictures speak volumes to me!The mothers too,they are sooooo brave!This website is incredible…..Keep up the amazement!Please