I think this is a natural place for breastfeeding education to be: it is
definitely a public health issue from so many standpoints - maternal,
infant, child, family, economics, nutrition, obesity, AIDs, disasters, etc.

When I decided to change course in my career, I wanted to go the MPH route.
Unfortunately, the only local university to offer this was Tulane (a well
respected private universtiy in New Orleans) which was about 10x more
expensive, as I recall. Therefore, I went the route of Master's in Nursing
at LSU Medical Center (also a well respected, but public, university in
N.O.). I already had my undergraduate degree from LSU. Luckily,  this
master's program was very family-focused and holistic and I was under the
Parent-Child specialty.In addition to the didactic and research coursework,
each candidate was expected to have a clinical specialty and had to have a
mentor(s) who was also master's prepared. My specialty was lactation (and
infant development), and I was able to work with 2 master's prepared,
RN/IBCLCs. This was in the late 80's to 1991, some of the first IBCLCs,
especially in Louisiana.

Also wanted to say thanks to a recent poster who talked about a dream job in
a military hospital. She pointed out some of the things that hospital LCs do
that are not routinely recognized. Like being a resource person for
anesthesia, surgeons, helping lactating moms in post-op or ICU situations,
etc. Just yesterday, I was called to see a mother with a 3 wk old bf baby.
The mom had urologic surgery and had her breasts bound due to leaking.
Lucky, the nurse called me, and I was able to help mom express and also
discussed the postop meds with nurse and mom. We also see mom/baby when baby
is admitted to pediatrics, also called for some lactating moms presenting to
ER with mastitis or other non-lactation events.

Laurie Wheeler RN MN IBCLC
Mississippi USA

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