First, full disclosure, I am a social worker.

I think the midwives' letter posted in Morgan's blog was excellent. It  
provided detailed, well documented information to its readers without  
being patronizing. Morgan commented about the difficult position  
social workers are in and alluded to their lack of education on the  
importance of breastfeeding. Clearly, the midwives' letter had an  
impact, and I would love to know the whole process by which the baby  
was returned to his parents' loving care.

Social workers are advocates, that is what they do for individuals and  
communities. Advocacy is an essential part of our training. They want  
to do what is best and right for their clients, and work hard inside  
and outside the system to do so. Because of their training, social  
workers are often very creative thinkers about how to get their  
clients the services they need. It behooves those of us in the  
lactation community to educate and collaborate meaningfully with  
social workers (as individuals we work with and as a profession) for  
our individual clients and for the community as a whole.

For sound reasons, it has been important for the profession of  
lactation consulting to position itself as a medical profession, like  
nurses, dieticians, pharmacists and others. As I understand it, the  
training of LCs focuses strongly on the technical and "medical"  
aspects of lactation. There is good reason for this. LCs are mostly  
nurses, dieticians and others with medical training. This discussion  
has been round and round on lactnet, it's not my purpose here to  
rehash the various positions on that issue.

Social workers are not medical providers, they do not have medical  
training. Their job is to work with clients/patients and the medical  
establishment (including nurses, LCs, etc.) to get the services that  
the clients need. Of course, there is much crossover between what  
nurses, LCs, dieticians, physicians and social workers do, however,  
there are still distinct aspects of their training, roles and world  
views. In order to serve our individual clients/patients and our  
communities best, it is essential that all of these professionals work  
together, each bringing their training, world view and perspectives to  
the table.

Karleen commented that it would be important to publish this case  
study in JHL. I agree, however, I think we need to think more  
broadly.  Social workers don't read JHL. JHL has a limited audience  
and is largely written by and for people with medical training because  
LCs are people with medical training. As important as publishing in  
JHL, is publishing this case study in a social work and/or public  
health journal. Then we will begin to broaden the audience of  
professionals whom we are educating about the importance of lactation  
and from whom we have much to learn about advocacy.

Naomi


------------------------------------------
Naomi Bar-Yam Ph.D.
Executive Director
Mothers' Milk Bank of New England

[log in to unmask]
617-527-6263
www.milkbankne.org
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