Facebook reinstates image of breastfeeding mum after photograph goes viral

Picture attracted nearly a quarter of a million ‘likes’ on a breast-feeding community group

Facebook has relaxed the policy of removing breastfeeding images (Rex Features)

Facebook has reinstated an image of a mother breastfeeding her premature baby after the photograph went viral when the mother complained it had been deleted.

Emma Bond, 24, posted an image of her feeding baby daughter Carene for the first time on Sunday - only to be told by Facebook that it had been deleted because it had “breached nudity rules”.

In response the mother of two posted the image on a pro-breastfeeding community page. The image received nearly a quarter of a million likes and hundreds of messages of support.

Miss Bond, from Oswestry in Shropshire, told The Daily Mail: “It was a magical moment and to have it removed the same day for breaching nudity policies was really rubbing salt in the wound.”

“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.”

Carene was born on 3rd October weighing just 2lbs 2oz. The average baby weighs around seven and a half pounds. Miss Bond and her partner, Ashley Kitchen, 30, were told she might only have three days to live.

“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,” she said.

After the photograph went viral, Facebook reinstated the image. Facebook has since insisited that the image was removed in error and that breastfeeding pictures are, in fact, not against its nudity guidelines.

However, the upset mother claimed: “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,” she said, adding: “I still haven’t got an explanation or apology”.

The decision follows international online campaign #FreeTheNipple which sought to attack guidelines used by social media websites to regulate nudity.

In June Facebook claimed it had changed its community standards as a result of the campaign, ordering its moderators to consider the context of photographs, allowing non-sexual images – such as pictures of nursing mothers or women with mastectomies – on the social media website.