In a message dated 98-04-28 09:38:06 EDT, you write:

<< After this happens,  I would  like to see the title LC protected.  Not to
 emphasize some elitist notion of superiority...  To take this out of the
realm of lactation support, ask yourself if you'd like to ...have your divorce
handled by your
 next door neighbor who attended a do-it-yourself law seminar.  Now much of
 breastfeeding support is not rocket science, and very often just
 encouragement and rudimentary knowledge are all it takes for assisting the
 normal mother and baby.  We don't need lactation specialists for all phases
 of lactation support. >>

Sorry to repost so much but all this is very interesting to me.  As a "lay"
lactation consultant with LLL and in my community on my own time, who
volunteers time and energy to help women breastfeed, I have to say I disagree
with some of this (no offense intended).  The inherently powerful and
wonderful thing about breastfeeding is that it is not on the same plane as a
divorce, which is a man-made complex philosophical  process which is based on
a code of likewise man made laws and institutions, rather than a basic
evolutionary behavior necessary for the survival and proper development of a
species.  Seems like a big difference to me, though I understand where you are
coming from.  The problem that I see with this idea is that once you
medicalize the field, you create a stigma for those who have not undergone the
specialized clinical training, whether because they are at-home moms who
cannot afford or do not have a desire to seek such time-intensive training, or
because of an ethical belief that breastfeeding help should be free and
available to every mother, from her peers if possible.  Research does indicate
that peer and kin network support has the most impact on mother's decsions to
initiate as well as to continue to breastfeed, and that medical support has
little if any impact on those decisions.  Therefore, I think localizing the
"authorized" help into the medical sphere ONLY will be neither efficacious nor
positve in its effects on breastfeeding in the culture.   When I see a baby
who is having obvious problems that do not respond to basic lactation
management (ie too few stools or diapers, not gaining, abnormal bowel
movements or jaundice, etc). I immediately refer mom to medical attention.
Howver, the great majority of the "lactation consultation" mothers need to is
to understand the biological mechanism for breastfeeding; encouragement for
nurturing behaviors that help bf continue; and a basic synopsis of what is
NORMAL for humans as far as nursing goes.  Cultural blinders are the main
thing I deal with, and I don't think a mom should have to pay or seek out
*clinical* attention for what is essentially a philosophical or
anthropological discussion.  Mothers helping mothers is an important mode of
lactation support, and when we begin to break ranks and alienate *any* form of
support, even if only by denying a certain title so that those who have it are
known as the "real" or "educated" support persons, we lose ground in meeting
every mother where she is in her bf experience, thereby best encouraging her
to continue.

Any ideas on this?  It's a fascinating, complex issue, one which I do not
pretend to understand fully.

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Joy Berry-Parks
LLL, Central Arkansas
Attachment Parenting Group of AR
Anthropology Apprentice
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"Childhood Decides."---Jean Paul Sartre
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