I disagree.... The stringent rules about who may sit the exam favours health care professionals and discriminates against those without formal health qualifications. We talk ad infinitum here about how many health care professionals of all varieties are ignorant about breastfeeding....some sit the exam....they pass but remain quite ignorant. I've spoken to some. It's scary! On the other hand there are a whole variety of non-health care professionals who are knowledgeable and passionate about breastfeeding (ie the lay breastfeeding counsellors). Many of these people could sit and pass the exam while sitting on their heads. However, it is now very difficult for these people to sit the exam...the profession and mothers lose. Karleen Gribble Australia > Kathleen, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree about your theory > on the 96% pass rate for the IBCLC exam. > > I think the pass rate is so high because IBCLE maintains such > stringent standards on who may TAKE the exam. While I feel confident, > at this point, that I could both pass the exam and function very > usefully as an LC in a variety of settings, I still have to log a huge > number of contact hours. When I called to ask questions about the > pathways for sitting for the exam, I was told by a very nice woman in > the IBCLE office that they hold me and others like me to such a > standard to ensure that we WILL pass the exam -- that the $485 or > whatever it costs to TAKE the exam won't be wasted. > *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET email list is powered by LISTSERV (R). There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html