I know it has been discussed before, but have any new ideas been thought of? I see the Registered Lactation Consultant as one positive step. Certification is available in many areas from accounting to technology. Licensing is available for many fields from cosmetology to massage therapy to nursing and medicine. I doubt any one word or set of words will make the fix and some might cause more problems than solutions. I wonder if it would be possible to set guidelines more realistically for what other credential certificates can do. Is that possible? I am not condemning organizations for offering courses and even a certificate at the end. I just would like what the certificate stands for to be better defined according to IBCLC standards of lactation practice. Is this possible? This discussion always interests me. I want IBCLC to be the "Gold Standard" it is, but I don't want to disrespect other ways of supporting breastfeeding. I just worry about the same things I have been reading here. . .mothers don't know, the public does not know, and IBCLC's are getting grouped together with less qualified certification standards in the minds of the people who deserve to know the difference. Pam MazzellaDiBosco *********************************************** 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 mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html