Dear Barbara,
Thank you so much for you Lactnet post.Currenlty there are about 11, 000
IBCLC's worldwide and just under 3,000 are ILCA members. The ILCA Marketing
Committee is currently working daily on issues for members worldwide to add
value to their membership and enhance communication on the new web site
www.ILCA.org But the reallity is, that ILCA is not the BOD and committee
members but each individual member member that becomes active and takes a
voice in the organization. It is each individual that will help ILCA define
its future direction. I appreciate what you stated below "Until our
profession gets serious
about demanding the same kind of standardized education, we will be left out
in the cold and probably deserve to be. So join ILCA, get active in
ILCA..."
ILCA is You!
Karen Querna, RN, BSN, IBCLC
ILCA Marketing Chair
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 09:46:31 -0500
From: Barbara Wilson-Clay <>
One of the things a professional organization is supposed to see to is the
advancement of the profession. One of those tasks is to pursue an
accredidation process that standardizes the education of the practitioners
of that profession. After that task is accomplished, then one hopes that
training programs emerge that teach to the accreditation curriculum. Then
the taking of the IBLCE exam would become the equivalent of boards and it
would be easier to argue for licensure of LCs. What's the hold up? Well,
for one thing, money and member energy to accomplish these big tasks. For
everyone who says: "I don't make enough money to justify spending a hundred
dollars US on joining my professional organization" I say to you: "Well
then, don't complain when you get denied the ability to work or to make a
decent living as an LC."
The doctor's order issue is not specifically exclusionary. This is
essentially a consumer protection issue. I've been writing about this for
years. Why should consumers trust us? No one knows how anyone was trained.
No one is equivalently trained. If you aren't IBCLC, you are not even
restrained by a Code of Ethics and there is no disciplinary oversight for
your practice as an LC, thus no consumer recourse should a bad outcome
occur. So it's the consumer who has the gripe, not us. Consumers have the
right to know (as they are currently assured with OTs and PTs) that the
person has graduated from an accredited educational program and that they
have a professional association and a licensing or certifying agency who can
discipline them for practice violations. Until our profession gets serious
about demanding the same kind of standardized education, we will be left out
in the cold and probably deserve to be. So join ILCA, get active in ILCA,
call on ILCA to allocate serious money (through writing grants) to pay
someone who knows how to make these things happen.
Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
LactNews Press
www.lactnews.com
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