Brenda reported:

<< I am an IBCLC for a WIC office.  Last week, my staff attended a one week
 course seminar taught by two very well known women whose names I won't
reveal.
 They were told that if you are practising as an IBCLC and are not in a
 licensed profession (i.e. a nurse working at a hospital) where your job
 description states that you may touch women, that you are setting yourself up
 for a potential lawsuit.  Evidently, there are quite a few cases pending
right
 now in which LCs are being sued for babies who have died or become ill after
 mothers followed the advice of an IBCLC.>>

Brenda,

Perhaps your staff members misunderstood what was said at the course?  I'm
curious -- has anyone else heard of "quite a few cases pending of babies who
have DIED? because the mothers followed the advice of an IBCLC???"  Is there
any documentation for this?  The LC world is fairly small, and it is
interesting that this is not, to my knowledge, common knowledge.    These seem
to be two unrelated issues -- one being potential "assault and battery"
charges if you touch a woman in the course of your job if you are not a
licensed health professional -- the other, lawsuits because of the
morbidity/mortality of infants who have died because the mother followed the
advice of an IBCLC.  I do think if this was the case, the Wall Street Journal
would have hopped on this in a heartbeat.

Is the implication that if you are a licensed health professional you will
never be sued because of poor advice???

Also, I am unaware of ANY legislation that states that you cannot touch a
woman unless you are a LICENSED health professional that requires touching
within their job description.  I do hope that your staff came back with
documentation for this statement, rather than just what the instructors said.

<< I stated that I do have liability insurance, but that was discussed at this
 conference, and apparently it holds no water in a lawsuit if you are not a
 licensed health professional in a job which requires touching in your job
 description.   >>

Of course, one of the reasons that you obtain consent from any mother with
whom you are working is to obtain her WRITTEN consent to touch her, her baby,
and her breasts.

It would be interesting to contact Pris Bornmann and the legal department of
LLL to get her take on this.  If this information is correct, it is something
that needs to be disseminated ASAP through ILCA and IBLCE.  I would certainly
ask your WIC director to hold on her dictum until you seek a true legal
opinion -- not just statements that came from a conference.

Certainly, everyone is entitled to an opinion.  It may be the OPINION of these
instructors that you are opening yourself up to legal liability if you touch a
woman without a license to do so, but would it be legally defensible ??  What
does your job description at WIC say?  If it says that you can touch women in
your role as an IBCLC, then you may do so.  The standards of practice of ILCA
talk about what the responsibilities of the IBCLC is -- obviously it includes
touching the mother.  It does not differentiate between licensed health
professionals and others -- it talks about the IBCLC.

What is a license?  It is a piece of paper that says I fulfilled the
requirements to sit for, and subsequently passed AN EXAM that is recognized in
my state.

We, as IBCLCs are the ones that are in process of defining the profession.
These charges that have been brought forth by these instructors are very
serious ones.  I trust that there is specific legal documentation for what
they have stated, as this needs to be addressed by the professional
organization and their legal beagles immediately.

Brenda, when all is said an done, I have to believe that this entire thing was
a misconception on the part of the students that attended the course.  I've
been involved with ILCA and IBLCE for many years, and I have not heard these
concerns raised by others in our profession.  As program director of a course,
I would be concerned if something like this came out of my course, and I would
want to be given the chance to clarify it immediately.

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC
Wheaton, IL