Pardee, Deena and others have touched a bit of a raw nerve for me. I took a course of about 50 hours culminating in a written exam given by the Israeli branch of the NCT of England. I received a certificate that I am "qualified as a lactation consultant". I am not allowed to ENTER the OB wards of my local hospital to counsel women "because I am not a nurse". I am sure that in nursing school, students receive less than half of the class hours studying "lactation" that I put in and no exam. For this reason, Karen, I am not willing to go for the IBCLC. The older I get, the lower my frustration-tolerance level. I took a course, have had a hotline at my home for 11 years, have a clinic one morning a week (nobody willing to pay me, so I work voluntarily), am the only one in my region of 600,000 people actively promoting breastfeeding, belong to ILCA and ICEA as well as LLLI and ICEC, keep up with the literature (and am becoming obsessed with lactnet). Can I call myself an LC? Can an OB nurse call herself an LC simply because she is an OB nurse? Sorry, I'm not angry with any of YOU - lots of anger at the local system with which I'm forced to work. And no, I don't have a mad on for every doctor and every nurse. My daughter is studying nursing...... Judy Knopf