London - A photograph of a mother breastfeeding her severely premature baby for the first time has gone viral after it was removed from Facebook because it “breached nudity rules”.
Emma Bond, 24, posted the picture of herself with Carene, who was born 12 weeks early, on Sunday. It was visible only to those she had approved as online friends.
The mother of two was shocked when the site removed it the same day after an anonymous person – presumed to be one of her friends – reported it as offensive.
In protest, she uploaded the image to a pro-breastfeeding Facebook group, and it gained 166 000 ‘likes’. But on Monday, the 22 000 users who re-posted it also had their links deleted.
Carene was born on October 3, weighing 2lb 2oz (about 1.4kg), but Bond and partner Ashley Kitchen, 30, were warned that she would not live more than three days.
At home in Oswestry, Shropshire, Bond said: “Two weeks prior to this being taken, I was told my daughter would die, so to then find yourself able to breastfeed was an incredible step.
“The original photo was only viewable by my friends and family. Everyone was aware it was touch and go, so I was sharing the special moment with people to show them how far she had come.
“It was a magical moment and to have it removed the same day for breaching nudity policies was really rubbing salt in the wound.”
Despite her remarkable survival, Carene is likely to have suffered serious brain damage. Bond and Kitchen, who owns a children’s play centre, travel to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford every day to see her.
Thousands have backed Bond online, with women posting breastfeeding images in support. Facebook user Laura Simmonds said: “Trouble with our world today, it’s OK for young girls to post pictures of themselves half-naked but when they see something so innocent and beautiful, it’s an offence. Where’s the sense in that?”
After hundreds of complaints, Facebook reinstated the black-and-white photo and said it was “removed in error”. Bond said: “I see so many animal cruelty or beheading or child abuse images on Facebook and report them myself, but nothing gets done.
“But something as precious and natural as this is removed instead. I know they put the image back up but it shouldn’t take thousands of people to make a stand for that to happen. I still haven’t got an explanation or apology.”
A Facebook spokesman said breastfeeding photos were never against its standards, but in the past nipples had to be hidden. The site wrote to Bond saying its policy had been updated to “better examine the context” of images, allowing breasts to be shown in nursing and mastectomy pictures. - Daily Mail