Sharon,
Thank you for requesting others' thoughts. To qualify as a lactation
consultant I did not have to prove personal breastfeeding experience. I
did have to qualify to *sit* the board exam and complete it with a
qualifying score. Possibly, there could be an argument made that many of
my originally qualifiying hours of mother-baby help specific to
breastfeeding came via volunteer LLLL hours. But, there are many other
people (men included) who did not qualify for IBLCE certfication via
hours somehow reliant on personal bf experience.

A local hospital has been advertising their nurses as lactation
consultants for about six months now. These nurses - whether they have
personal breastfeeding experience or not - are entitled to use the job
classification *lactation consultant* because their employer (the
hospital) has designated them as lactation consultants. I have yet to
hear anyone claim that they actually met an LC at that hospital -
interesting.

No area of expertise was needed to be shown, no specific level of
knowledge in the area of lactation/breastfeeding was needed, for these
RNs to qualify (as per the hospital brochure) as LCs. This affords the
hospital and the nurses an opportunity to be seen as *pro
breastfeeding*.

Often this situation can provide an opprtunity  for all individuals
involved to become aware of the burgeoning field of lactation. When they
realize that the title lactation consultant is indicative of a
profession, I would hope that they would aspire to fit their prematurely
bestowed title.

Paula Bermingham, IBCLC (originally certified in 1986, recertified in
1991 and again in 1996)
WIC Breastfeeding Coordinator
Lake County (CEMR-WIC) CA