Dear Lactnetters,

As I've read the posts over the last couple weeks concerning LC's educationally
grounded in Nursing (I'm talking about the profession, not
nursing=breastfeeding, which is yet another issue) I struggle to clear my
thoughts, and figured some airing on Lactnet might help - more than just me. So,
right up front let me tell you that I've no intention to offend or to elevate
one profession's strengths over another's. With this said...

Personally, I'm coming from a therapy background - Community Mental Health,
primarily crisis intervention and short term therapy - so maybe I'm biased. I've
watched this LC profession grow both personally and professionally since 1976 (I
have a complete set of KEEPING ABREAST JOURNAL, 1976 - 1979). I understand the
need for a strong health/medical background in this LC field, and specific
nutritional information both about the breastmilk and for the lactating mother,
but sometimes I wonder if we haven't given short shrift to all the educational
and counseling skills needed by our profession. In our society's traditional
presentation of breastfeeding as a *breast or bottle* choice, we are immediately
classifying breastfeeding as a healthy FEEDING activity. Sometimes we even go so
far as to include - on the side - the medicinal qualities of human milk and the
preventive nature of the suckling movements/exercise as precursers to good
articulation in speech and orthodontic alignment. Rarely do we recognize and
celebrate the totally different parenting style that is inextricably entwined in
an exclusive, extended (12 months+) breastfeeding relationship - a parenting
style that rewards both baby and mother. I wonder how many times mother takes up
exclusive bottle feeding after attempting breastfeeding, because she was bottle
feeding all along WITH A BREAST. I wonder if babies get nipple confused because
we (as a society in general, not LCs specifically) are breast/bottle confused -
would a baby who has had breast access from birth with lots of skin-to-skin,
holding time and co-sleeping find an occassional bottle as troubling as we
anecdotally know them to be? And how many LCs in an exit session with a mother,
letting go of her breastfeeding relationship, counsel her to maintain the
breastfeeding parenting style WITH A BOTTLE (I know there are some of you  who
do this, but think: have you seen this written about in any of our literature?).
I am trying to figure out: are LCs needing so much health/medical background
because society put infant feeding in the hands of medicine and manufacturing?,
or do we need this kind of background because society continues to equate breast
and bottle feeding? (much like the choice of transportation: a Mercedes or a
Ford? both get you around but one is soooo much better looking, enginered,
etc...), or because the field of developmental psychology refuses to look
seriously at the variants associated with a breastfeeding parent/child
relationship?

I, too, think that the field of lactation cousulting should stand on its own two
feet - as soon as we all find them, that is. I hope that as the field progresses
it becomes more than an *add-on* credential, though we need to start somewhere.
I hope that we continue to push for education that is interdisciplinary and
experiential, and not just seeing mother/baby couples during immediate
postpartum or when they have a drug question. And I hope that other
sciences/fields/professions some day  take the breastfeeding relationship as
seriously as does the health/medical field (not that we have everyone convinced
in this discipline, by a long shot!).

Warmly,
Jeanine Klaus, MS, IBCLC, LLLL
Oakville, Ontario