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Facebook is a virtual public place that is filled with millions of people from all around the world with lots of different beliefs. For me that is what makes it a fun place to hang out. I love the human element that cannot be controlled… or can it?

Three days ago I posted this image of my client’s baby being born in it amniotic sac, at home, in the birth tub.

It was an educational post to show how birth can happen, even when your care providers don’t break your waters. It is not necessary to have your waters broken for your baby to come out, in fact it is safer not to have your waters artificially broken because once they are broken it opens your baby’s home up to bacteria and an increased risk of infection.

I have been a birth photographer and doula for almost five years now. I have photographed over two hundred births in Vancouver, BC, attending both home and hospital births. I have posted many images to Facebook over the years of beautiful freshly born babies, naked labouring women, Caesarean births and vaginal births. When I post images of babies being born, I am careful how I crop them because I know what the Facebook community standards are. This is what Facebook’s community standards are around Nudity:

I got this message when my recent image was removed and I was punished with a three day time out. When you get banned from Facebook your page remains active and you can see everything happening on your page, but you can’t comment or interact. It is a very weird feeling.

I have been banned a few times for graphic images. One was of a big sister swimming in the birth tub with her newly born sister and another was of my nephew, naked, hugging a goat. You could see the very top of his bum crack but it was definitely not the focus of the image. Here are the two images that I posted which landed me in a Facebook time out:

I came to the understanding that these images were censored because of child pornography concerns. I decided that with my large reach (I have over 20,000 followers on my facebook page) it was probably safer not to have these images on the internet. I spent my days in time-out not making much fuss and carried on as usual when my time-out was up.

Last week when my client gave me permission to share this rare image of a baby being born in its caul, I was careful to crop out her birthing vulva, so as not to stir the Facebook pot. In the past some of my most empowering and recognizable posts have been ones which have showed babies, half born in either Ceasarean birth or vaginal birth. My Facebook following loves to bear witness to these posts and often they are healed or inspired by them. Here are some examples of my more “graphic” birth images that have been reported but not taken down:

So you can imagine, it was very surprising when my recent post was removed and I was sent to the time-out seat for three days.

I was sure I cropped out the vulva, I was sure their was no bum crack AND I knew my post was educational. I was helping inform pregnant ladies that they did not need to have their waters broken while in labour. So why was my post removed? And why when my colleague, Jodi Kaldestad, posted it on her business page later that day in support, did it get removed from her page while she was sleeping?

In response to Facebook’s removal of my image I added a censor bar so that all of those concerned citizens don’t have to be worried. I wouldn’t want people to be offended by that newborn baby’s nipple and keep people everywhere from seeing this truly amazing image. Now that it’s censored appropriately, please share with people everywhere and inspire them to get educated, so that birthing women can stand up for themselves and their babies and not have their waters broken unnecessarily.

Hopefully it will be enough for Facebook to see that this image is not against their community standards and if scantly clothed people who are promoting sex and acts of violence can stay then why not a wonderful image of a baby almost fully born?

My Facebook time out is finished. I am celebrating by posting this newly censored educational image, and hopefully people will share it without any worry of getting banned or warned. Do you think it will work???

I guess time will tell.

UPDATE: 2pm on Monday November 30th.

I posted my new censored image of a baby being born in it’s amniotic sac to my Facebook page this morning, with an explanation that the image was for educational purposes and it DID meet Facebook’s community standards.  My post lasted about four hours before they took the post down, along with a giving me a SEVEN day ban and a request of my photo ID to prove I am a real person. (I wasn’t expecting that.) Continue reading  my next post about how I was censored a second time in one week here.

Want to read more interesting blog posts? How about 10 women catching their own babies.

Morag Hastings is a Doula and Birth Photographer located in Vancouver, BC Canada. Come check out more of her work on her facebook page or feel free to email me at mailto: moraghhastings@gmail.com I would love to hear from you.