Facebook is coming under fire for removing a touching photo showing the mother of a premature baby breastfeeding her newborn for the first time.
Emma Bond posted image with Carene, who was born 12 weeks early, but Facebook deleted photo after someone reported it as ‘offensive.” The social media web site informed Emma that the photo (bottom right) “didn’t follow Facebook Community Standards on nudity.”
The Facebook decision came after the photo went viral after she posted it to a pro-breastfeeding group and other Facebook users who shared it to Facebook found their links were also deleted for the same reasons. After complaints, Facebook has now reversed itself and reinstated the photo.
Bond and her partner Ashley Kitchen, 30, were warned Carene would not survive more than three days when she was born prematurely on October 3, weighing just 2lbs 2oz.
So when the baby breastfed for the first time on Sunday, the delighted mother shared a black-and-white picture of the moment with her friends and family on Facebook.
Bond – who also has a son aged two named Luca – said: ‘Carene was born by emergency Caesarean section. We were told to get the priest in – she wasn’t meant to last past her third day. Premature babies are prone to bleeds on the brain and she had a bleed on her lungs also.
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‘She was born with an infection, she had a lot going on. We don’t know the outcome of the brain damage. But she is able to move and open her eyes and look around and feed which we were told would be unexpected. The original photo was only viewable by my friends and family who have followed my story.
‘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 the first time she had breastfed so there was a reason for me posting that particular (image).
‘It was a magical moment and to have it removed the same day for breaching nudity policies was really rubbing salts in the wounds. The picture represents more than just me breastfeeding my newborn baby. Carene is very poorly and we fought very hard to get to this point. I was upset when it was reported. It is something very natural and special and should be promoted.’
