Recent posts from #igallowuncensoredbirth are currently hidden because the community has reported some content that may not meet Instagram's community guidelines.
This is what you read when you go to the igallowuncensoredbirth instagram page. When you go onto the empoweredbirthproject instagram account, you will see that some images have been removed and it states that this photo contents sensitive content that some people may find offensive or disturbing.
Instagram has removed photos from this account and the account of other users that show what they consider as graphic photos of women giving birth. However medical professionals are allowed to post graphic photos on instagram. Why is this happening?
I have written in the past about what Society now considers to be natural or normal and one of the things I discussed was that midwives are now being told not to promote natural birth. The reason being that women are more likely to go into hospital to give birth. Once in hospital what follows is a cascade of interventions that prevent a woman experiencing a natural birth.
In that post I also talked about how the American Academy of Paediatrics had published an article saying how breastfeeding is not natural and leads to mothers not vaccinating their kids, To me both birth and mothering are under attack. Women are losing the power to decide how they wish to birth their babies and are being advised not to breastfeed and now this, pictures of the most natural thing in the world are seen as offensive. As one newspaper wrote the photos are being
" Categorised as offensive material alongside pornography, threats of violence and hate speech"
You can read that ariticle here
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/mar/12/childbirth-images-instagram-ban-censorship-katie-vigos-labour
What is this saying to women everywhere, that it is OK for our bodies to be seen in a sexual way, but when it comes to giving birth, the most natural and sacred of acts it is offensive and inappropriate. It is something to hide and be shameful of.
Women should be exposed to images of birth, especially first time mothers, because then they will have some idea as to what to expect. To actually see a babies head crowning and the vagina opening to the full 10 centimetres. To see how the female body copes with birth. There was a time when women were actively more involved in births in there communities and would have been exposed to birth. However today we rely on other means and now that is under attack.
One instagram account in question, set up by Katie Vigos in 2014, it is called the Empowered Birth Project and it was created to help educate and inform women about birth and at the same time celebrate it.
At the end of 2017 she set up a petition on Change.org asking for Instagram to allow uncensored birth images to be shown on the website. You can see the petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/nicole-jackson-colaco-allow-uncensored-birth-images-on-instagram
In Kates own words
Instagram continues to categorize physiological birth with pornography, graphic violence, profanity, and other subject matter it deems too offensive for the public eye. Birth does not belong in the same category as any of these things.
This pervasive attitude toward birth is counterproductive to our mission of normalizing birth and releasing it from shame, stigma, and social taboo. The only way we can begin to change the way society views and appreciates birth, is to stop categorizing it as offensive material and start allowing our community the freedom to share uncensored images and information.
I agree wholeheartedly with her, this is something we need to fight, we can not allow our freedom of expression to continue to be taken from us. Our children are bombarded with images of aggression and violence if they turn on the T.V or look online, this is acceptable, this is the norm. But seeing images of a baby being born is no longer deemed appropriate, for anyone.
We can not allow them to take this empowering act away from us. We can not allow them to detach us any further from the natural aspects of our lives. Birth is not meant to be a mystery it is meant to celebrated and honoured, talked about and shared.
I have written many posts about birth and I will continue to do so. Because women need to feel supported and empowered in pregnancy and birth. There should be no shame, no fear. Our bodies are amazing, the knowledge we hold is an ancient wisdom that has been carried from generation to generation.
I am part of the ecotrain, if you wish to read great content and be inspired please check it out. It is one train that is full of very diverse and creative passengers. And we all know that diversity is the spice of life.
