Naughty Pictures?

Navelgazing Midwife has posted an Open Letter to YouTube, which apparently (based on anecdotal evidence about women the author knows) has been removing videos showing women giving birth.

The post notes that "Whereas most in our computerized culture never see another baby being born until we have our own, YouTube gave women a window into one of the most basic and universal experiences on earth," and laments that this opportunity seems to have been withdrawn.

Whether this is a YouTube policy or not is unclear. The Community Guidelines don't mention birth---they mention "sexually explicit content," but many people (including me) would argue that birth, while it may feature graphic nudity and have a certain implied relationship with sex in the past, is not "sexually" explicit.

There's a similarity here to the question of whether women are allowed to post pictures of themselves nursing their babies on Facebook. It's a little bit of someone's breast and a baby's head. What's the big deal?

So is it appropriate to show birth on YouTube? And nursing mothers on Facebook?

I don't set the rules, but I would say yes.

I can see how these could be the kinds of thing that some people would not want to see, but there are a lot of things on the internet, and even just on YouTube and Facebook, that I have no interest in seeing.

I avoid looking at them, and there we are. It's a little system I've been working on.

But what about the children?! What if little Billy is mousing around YouTube and comes across a video of someone giving birth and is scarred for life?

Again...there are a lot of things online that might scar poor little Billy. I feel bad for him, because he's got his work cut out to grow up with an unwarped mind if he goes anywhere near that thing [i.e. the internet].

Sympathetic though I am, however, I personally find it hard to get worked up about birth and nursing, when presented with the plethora of other exciting mind-warp options out there.

Besides, what about the grown-ups?! The pregnant women and their partners who might really appreciate the opportunity to see what it is they're going to go through? The mothers and their friends and family who might happen to think images of themselves nourishing their children are beautiful and worth sharing?

So if you ask me, post the birth videos and nursing pictures.