My name is Flor Cruz, and I am a birth worker, educator, and advocate whose work focuses on human rights, birth rights, and childbirth education. I have been educating the public via Instagram for over 10 years now in conjunction with sharing raw and real imagery of the perinatal period. The Empowered Birth Project (founded by Katie Vigos) launched a petition in December 2017 calling on Meta Platforms (via its platforms Instagram and Facebook) to stop censoring birth imagery. By January 2018, Facebook and Instagram had “officially changed their policies” to allow uncensored birth. For years, Meta has publicly acknowledged the educational and cultural importance of allowing graphic birth and breastfeeding images on its platforms. These visuals are not gratuitous—they are vital educational tools that contribute directly to public health, informed consent, and advocacy in a nation facing one of the highest maternal mortality rates among developed countries.

When Meta initially updated its policies to protect such content, there was an internal representative, Dayna Geldwert, dedicated to supporting and safeguarding birth-related accounts from wrongful violations or removals. Unfortunately, Dayna has stopped replying to emails and no longer appears to support the protection of perinatal education on meta platforms.

Today, my accounts—@BadassMotherBirther on Instagram (over 1 million followers) and BadassMotherBirther on Facebook (over 2.5 million followers)—continue to receive repeated, unjustified violations and content removals despite adhering to Meta’s stated guidelines. These actions have severely impacted my ability to educate, advocate, and maintain trust with a large global audience who rely on accurate, evidence-based information about birth.

I have sent certified letters to Meta’s Menlo Park office and made multiple formal attempts to resolve this issue through support channels, all without response. The ongoing lack of protection for educational birth content not only contradicts Meta’s own public commitments but also harms the public’s access to life-saving education.

I am respectfully requesting that this matter be escalated to a senior member of Meta’s policy or integrity team who can review my case and ensure that my content is protected under the policies Meta itself established. If these issues continue unaddressed, I may have no choice but to pursue further action to safeguard both my work and the larger birth education community.

Thank you for your time and attention to this urgent matter. I deeply hope Meta will reaffirm its commitment to protecting educational birth content and the communities it serves.