I agree that you should have been paid.  It sounds to me like you did
everything possible to help, and you were called there and did what you were
asked to do.  I work in a public health department with a very high
immigrant population, and do home visits often with a translator.  Even when
the translator is a native speaker of the client's language, it is just so
hard.  I have to say they are the very hardest consults I do, and I often
find myself feeling less than effective.  There's just so much that doesn't
come across in translation, no matter how much you know about the person's
culture.  You just don't have that flow of conversation.  There are so many
times where I ask questions that lead to other questions, and reveal
information that the mother would never have volunteered on her own, either
because she didn't think it was important, or she had forgotten about
something.  I often feel like a detective.  However, on those visits with a
translator, it's just not the same.  All I can say is that this is a very
difficult issue for us here too.  We have so many different languages
represented here, and sometimes I am translating through a friend who only
speaks limited English themselves, or even through just an older child in
the family.  It's just hard.

Best,
Sonya Shaver, BS, CHES, IBCLC


On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 7:29 AM, Elizabeth Brooks <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I have the pleasure of being a colleague of Nikki's so I am absolutely
> confident that no toes -- cultural, societal, age, sex, professional --
> were
> inadvertently stepped on during her visit with a family where the father
> served as translator.  She is a model of warmth and encouragement in any
> setting, and has a real way with words to help parents "see through the
> baby's eyes."
>
> Here is the piece that jumped out to this fellow lactaiton consultant in
> private practice:  not accepting a full fee because the baby didn't latch
> and BF after an exhausting consult.  We aren't paid for result...we are
> paid
> for our expertise.  The dad in this scenario absolutely pegged it when he
> said that Nikki was the "expert" (ref: paragraph above).  As LCs in PP we
> can always reduce or waive our fee for various reasons (helping out an
> unemployed or student mom, for example) but the fee should not be tied to
> the result.
>
> We all have consultations that haunt us, but I suspect the reason they
> haunt
> us is that despite our dilgent, respectful, honorable and evidence-based
> effortrs to assist a mother ... there is no guarantee of a magic wand to
> "make it happen."
>
>
> --
> Liz Brooks JD IBCLC FILCA
> Wyndmoor, PA, USA
>
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