Mary Sounds like a great hosp with nurses so supportive and able to assist with bf. Coming from a background in nursing, I have always believed that the LC role is equivalent to the clinical nurse specialist or CNS (like a clinical nurse specialist in pulmonology or whatever). The nursing staff should be able to assist with all the bf dyads as a routine part of their work. This is not the case - yet. In the nicu the nurses should be able to start a mom expressing, storing, transporting her milk. We did this as staff nurses in the nicu, we were called ourselves bf counselors, not one of us ibclc at the time. If the no. of deliveries is small and the LC is on call for problems and can come in for o.p. consults, than you are right, I think it can be done. Bottom line - the whole mat/child staff including the docs needs to be bf savvy and bf friendly and this makes the LCs life much, much easier and able to work with the more complex dyads. The roles of the CNS are practitioner, educator, consultant, researcher, and administrator. Doesn't this sound like us? Ref Perspectives on developing, marketing, and implementing a new clinical specialist position. Glenda Beekmann Ball. Clinical Nurse Specialist, vol 4(1) p. 33. Laurie Wheeler, RN, MN, IBCLC Laurie Wheeler, RN, MN, IBCLC Louisiana Breastfeeding MediaWatch Campaign Violet Louisiana, USA mailto:[log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com