Over the weekend a commercial that focused on the “real” experiences of postpartum women began to go viral on social media and parenting blogs after the Academy Awards rejected airing the ad calling the ad “too graphic.”

We went straight to the source on YouTube to watch it for ourselves and what we saw was perfect. It was a reflection of many of the things that people don’t talk about and, frankly, it is ridiculous that it was rejected.

It was a big missed opportunity to build a more positive conversation about the importance of supporting women and babies in the fragile days and weeks after giving birth.

To add insult to injury, Facebook has joined the club. After watching the video for ourselves, we shared it directly on Facebook and subsequently had the post removed because it “goes against the Facebook Rules on nudity or sexual activity”.

Wow, Facebook, really? We strongly encourage Facebook to revise it’s rules and stop silencing the experiences of new moms.

To be clear, this impacts our ability to prevent child maltreatment. When you drive the conversation about the “real” experiences of new parents into the shadows, you prevent us from strengthening families.

We encourage you to watch the video embedded in its entirety below and share this blog, since Facebook won’t let you share the actual video.

It’s not “violent, political” or sexual in nature AND there is no nudity that is inappropriate.