Facebook deemed this breastfeeding photo offensive. The rest of the world says it is beautiful.

By SHAUNA ANDERSON

It was a moment to remember, to share – and to be proud of.

A new Mum whose premature baby was born an incredible 12 weeks early  defied the odds and breastfed.

24-year old Emma Bond wanted to share the moment she had been told would never happen so she uploaded an image of her triumph to Facebook, thrilled that she had been able to finally feed her daughter the way she wanted to.

Only to have the moment destroyed when the social media giant ripped the picture down, saying a user complained as the image contained offensive nudity.

The image has now gone viral – as has Emma’s story.

When Emma’s baby Carene was born on October 3 Emma and her partner Ashley were told the little girl would not survive.

“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.” Emma said.

“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.” reports The Daily Mail.

When she not only survived past day three but breastfed for the first time it was magical.

“It was the first time she had breastfed so there was a reason for me posting that particular picture.

“It was a magical moment and to have it removed the same day for breaching nudity policies was really rubbing salts in the wounds.”

Here is the photo that caused all the controversy.

Emma from Shropshire in the UK says she was upset by Facebook’s decision so decided to upload it to a pro-breastfeeding website, where it attracted 166,000 likes.

Despite that even users who tried to share it on their own Facebook profiles found the link was deleted.

She says that Facebook’s policies don’t make sense.

“The thing for me is that I see so many animal cruelty or beheading or child abuse images on Facebook and report them myself but nothing gets done,” she said.

“But something as precious and natural as this is removed instead.

“You can clearly see that Carene isn’t a perfectly healthy baby in the image as well, so it is upsetting.

But women around the world were not going to let Emma feel like she had done anything wrong.

Emma says the support was amazing “I have complained to Facebook but on the positive side I have received hundreds of encouraging messages from women around the world – some of whom are from Australia, America – it really did go viral.”

Facebook has since backtracked saying the image was removed in error.

A spokesman for Facebook told the BBC that said breastfeeding photos have never been against the firm’s Community Standards, but nipples had to be covered or concealed.

“The policy has been updated, Facebook modified the way it reviews reports of nudity to better examine the context of the photo or image.

‘As a result of this, photos that show a nursing mothers’ other breast will be allowed even if it is full exposed, as will mastectomy photos showing a fully exposed other breast.”

Emma says that the situation has had some upsides.

“I have even had young girls telling me that I have encouraged them to give breast feeding a go.” she said according to The Daily Mail. 

“Yes it has been removed and I think that is out of order but it has had a positive impact. It is a shame breastfeeding is still frowned upon.”

It’s nothing new. Facebook has come under fire hundreds of times before for removing breastfeeding photos eventually changing its policy earlier this year after the hashtag #freethenipple went viral.

But it seems the Facebook police haven’t quite caught up with their own policy change.

Sadly there is doubt we will see this story played out again and again as the Facebook takes centre stage in our lives and society struggles to catch up with the well established fact that breastfeeding is simply a natural part of life.