Emily -

Please, please, please sit for the exam!

IBLCE has made, in my opinion, a temporary blunder with its SoP.  If we begin dismantling the reputation that we've worked for 20 years to build, just because of this readily correctable error, it will take us just that much longer to establish ourselves.  IBCLCs are the gold standard.  Period.  

In a small village, everyone knows who the good midwives, doctors, spear-makers are.  Word of mouth is entirely good enough.  In our global village, reputation just doesn't work well enough to find help quickly.  We need some other way to identify the good guys.  An MD may or may not be fabulous, but at least you know before you even meet him that he went to med school.  We really need the same clearly-understood standard for breastfeeding helpers.  The IBCLC initials are the only initials that don't indicate simply that one particular course was passed.   

That said, I'm fully prepared, if the SoP blunder becomes permanent, to continue to keep myself certified *but not use the initials*.  That would provide the public with assurance of my theoretical competence if I'm asked, but would allow me to function by my own ethical compass otherwise.  I'm toying with the personally-conferred initials SOB - Supporter Of Breastfeeding - and propose that we can't be true SOBs unless we have taken the exam, passed, and refused the credential :-)

In the meantime, Emily, please, please, please sit for the exam, and please encourage your excellent mentor to do so also.  If I were a new mother in this global village, I wouldn't know her and would no doubt pass her over in favor of an IBCLC, perhaps to my detriment.

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  (not yet an SOB in Ithaca, NY  USA)
www.wiessinger.baka.com


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