Pardee, Deena and others have touched a bit of a raw nerve for
me. I took a course of about 50 hours culminating in a written
exam given by the Israeli branch of the NCT of England. I
received a certificate that I am "qualified as a lactation
consultant". I am not allowed to ENTER the OB wards of my local
hospital to counsel women "because I am not a nurse". I am sure
that in nursing school, students receive less than half of the
class hours studying "lactation" that I put in and no exam. For
this reason, Karen, I am not willing to go for the IBCLC. The
older I get, the lower my frustration-tolerance level. I took a
course, have had a hotline at my home for 11 years, have a clinic
one morning a week (nobody willing to pay me, so I work
voluntarily), am the only one in my region of 600,000 people
actively promoting breastfeeding, belong to ILCA and ICEA as well
as LLLI and ICEC, keep up with the literature (and am becoming
obsessed with lactnet). Can I call myself an LC? Can an OB nurse
call herself an LC simply because she is an OB nurse? Sorry, I'm
not angry with any of YOU - lots of anger at the local system
with which I'm forced to work. And no, I don't have a mad on for
every doctor and every nurse. My daughter is studying
nursing......
Judy Knopf