It is just too easy to dismiss this thread by "agreeing" that moms hear what they want to hear, misunderstand, etc. How does this allow us to evaluate in any way just how well-trained we as LC's really are? The issue of tongue-tie is a good one. I happen to see many babies whose situations are complex and my clients have often seen several LCs before they see me. I expect that structural and oral/motor problems may have been missed (although I do not think such lapse in education is acceptable, since such difficulties are so common), but I cannot tell you how many tongue-ties are missed completely--even by multiple LC's. (As I said this is just one example).

When I worked in hospital, every single complaint from a mother was met with the argument that she must have misunderstood.  Yet, often the instructions that she supposedly misunderstood seemed to have been similarly misunderstood by scores of other moms and I often personally heard the exact misinformation come from the practitioner's own mouth, and often after s/he had been corrected in the past.

I think we do a terrible disservice to mothers and our own profession when we respond so carelessly to concerns about inadequate education and even sloppy care. We spent so many years complaining about what we absoutely knew to be true--that peds and OBs often give highly inaccurate and undermining info to moms--yet we want to hide out heads in the sand when the problem comes from our own ranks. 

I think there is a problem and I think it is serious. I'd frankly like to address it.
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT USA

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