The Fight Against Instagram's Ban Of Birth Photography

For seven years, Instagram allowed provocative images of girls and women in seductive poses, wearing few (if any) clothes, as well as explicit and gory pictures of patients in hospitals. Yet the platform kept deleting childbirth photographs, even when these had been edited to hide the vulva and any blood. 

When Katie Vigos, a Los Angeles-based nurse, got pregnant with her third son, she decided to document the birth, and to create a social media account (Empowered Birth Project) with the intention of encouraging and educating future mothers, husbands, doulas and midwives. Her page quickly received plenty cheering and support, however after her photographs (including those of her own birth) got deleted, Katie began a hard fight against Instagram’s and Facebook's decency policies.

The very-recently won battle was hard; it took years of conversations between Facebook and women’s health advocates along with Katie's activism to eliminate the restriction.

The story of Katie's struggle is emotional and uplifting at the same time that it shows a big issue in our Western society; the hypocrisy and the hyper-sexualization surrounding female bodies. 

“Birth is a moment of ultimate power and surrender for women, telling women that that power is offensive and needs to be hidden is sending a really damaging message.”