AJ: None of the non-LC flak is meant to apply to health care professionals who are knowledgable about breastfeeding. If every RN were supportive of and informed about breastfeeding, we would not be seeing so much iatrogenic breastfeeding failure. Please, please continue to assist your patients to breastfeed their infants. What is frustrating to LC's is when a hospital or health service promotes non certified persons as LC's, preventing mothers who truly need LC care from getting it. Imagine if your hospital took nurses aides and expected them to do the job of an RN, then denied you a job because they already had all their RN positions filled with aides, then advertised to the public that their staff were genuine RN's! This is what many of us are up against. We are judged by the actions of the undereducated, inexperienced non-LC's; mothers are not getting the assistance they need; and our colleagues in the health professions are none the wiser. I think you hit the nail right on the head when you said we all need to know our limits. With the pace of biomedical research and information dissemination, no one health care professional could hope to cover all the bases. This is what makes a team approach so effective. Our frustration with this issue is in no way an attempt to keep other health care professionals from assisting breastfeeding mothers, but to keep uncredentialed persons from calling themselves LC's. Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC