>No matter what a person's experience or credentials,  several people may have
several different areas of expertise to contribute to a mother.

Lactation is no different.   A mother may need to deal with an IBCLC at one
point of her lactation, a mother that has BTDT at another time, and a
supportive and knowledgeable physician , nurse, or other health care
professinal at another.   Imagine if all of those people worked together
instead of arguing about which one is best?<

Absolutely!

>My point is that I wouldn't want a CLE (and I'm not even sure what that
stands for or means) to feel that they can't help the mother with a cleft
palate Down's syndrome baby.<

Sure they can,  in CONJUNCTION with the EXPERTS!  It means certified
lactation educator and I spent A LOT of time writing a BF class curriculum
amoung other projects.

>Sure if an IBCLC is available, wonderful,
or if someone with more direct experience with that situation is available,
that's great, too - but I'd hate to see someone end up getting NO help with
breastfeeding because a person didn't feel sufficiently qualified.<

I totally agree, but in my world the expert is always available.  And one can
almost always give some basic info before referring the person to an expert.
If the client refuses to go to another,  then the CLE has an obligation to
ensure that the person knows that you are not the most educated or
experienced person around to help them.  But that may be rarely true for
someone like Theresa since she has so much experience.

>When I was stuck, I contacted people in LLL for more info and more help.
Sometimes it didn't work, but very often it did.<

You mean, you consulted with the experts of that time?

<I've been a LLL Leader for 21 years now.  <
 You have an incredible amount of experience and that counts.  Their are
other kinds of learning besides in a college or other "official" setting.
But  SOCIETY sometimes needs a piece of paper in an attempt to prove how much
you know.  This is not good or bad, it just is.....

I can't help but notice that this talk is so similar to the one between
diploma and degreed nurses.  Are their any predominently male professions
that have these issues?  Is it just because this is a predomintely female
profession and as women we have so many roles and so little time, that we
don't want to see that this is important to society and advancement of the
profession.

I see this as a profession--do you as a group see it that way?  And if you
do, then as a profession to practice you have to follow the rules in order to
gain credibility.  Again that is just the way it is.

Chris Betzold  ( who took a long time to realize that I couldn't change the
rules and that I had to work within them--actually not a long time just 3
years in the Airforce did it.)

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