It seems odd to insist that an LC have personal experience with breastfeeding.

1) That assumes that personal experience can serve as background (too many
health providers think this is the ONLY (or use this as the PRIMARY) means
of answering bf mothers' questions (see the work of Freed, et al, with
disastrous results!).

2) The IBCLE is NOT ALLOWED to discriminate by gender. Some men HAVE sat
the IBCLE.

3) Several men on LACTNET have been regular participants and seem to know
something about lactation and breastfeeding without having experienced it
themselves!  Are we to assume that because they have a Y chromosome that
they should not be encouraged to share with those of us who do not?

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"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask]
WEB PAGE: http://www.telcomplus.com/~kga/lactation.html
LACTNET archives http://library.ummed.edu/lsv/archives/lactnet.html