The amazing disappearing lady has disappeared once again. For the third time in less than a year, YouTube has deleted one of my unassisted homebirth videos because it “violated their community guidelines.” They’ve also threatened to permanently disable my account.

WHAT IS SO OFFENSIVE ABOUT THIS VIDEO ??? While it’s currently posted on Jumpcut, it’s already been flagged, although not deleted (yet). Google, MySpace and several other video hosting sites deleted it within hours of my posting it. When I’ve asked friends about this I’ve gotten the following responses:

-It makes people uncomfortable because it’s too sexual. It takes place in a bedroom, and the sounds she’s making are similar to those of a woman having sex. She almost sounds as if she’s enjoying giving birth!

-It makes people uncomfortable because they’re afraid to see birth outside a hospital setting. Most people are convinced that birth is inherently dangerous, and needs to be managed and controlled by “experts.”

-It makes people uncomfortable because the woman is far too independent. No one is there telling her what to do. She actually has the audacity to think for herself and believe in her own abilities.

Of course, I’m not the only one that has been targeted. As I wrote in my previous post about Censorship on YouTube, other homebirth videos – both unassisted and midwife assisted – have also been deleted. Hospital birth videos, however, no matter how graphic (and disturbing, as far as I’m concerned) are perfectly OK. Click here and here.

The upside of this is that I no longer have to spend time everyday deleting angry comments from people who didn’t approve of the video. On the other hand, I no longer get to read the lovely comments from people whose lives were changed for the better after watching this beautiful and inspiring NATURAL event.