Yikes! Maybe I didn't make myself clear in my posting about the role of "the
profession"!

Carol B., I agree *totally* with what you said! I don't think I meant that
lactation consulting should be a "background profession"? (Did I say that?
If I did, it's not quite what I meant.) I guess what I was thinking was
that, in an ideal world, we'd do ourselves out of our jobs.

We *need* the science, every single speck of it, and more and more research.
And we need the knowledge to be spread around more, so that (for example) we
don't have peds telling young mothers that "your baby is allergic to your
milk" just because the ped doesn't know what the problem is and/or doesn't
have the time to work on fixing it. Why on earth should anyone come out of
however many years of medical school & residency, etc., specialize in peds
or family practice, and have no better answer to give to a nursing mother
than that? So WE (LCs) need to keep researching, and teaching, and sounding
our own horns, and sharing what we know, at both ends of the spectrum - with
the "medical professionals", who *need* to know more of what we know, and
with the mothers, who need our skills to put their plans to BF into action.

And I don't think that BFing is the sole province of women, although I guess
I could reasonably be accused of coming pretty close. Or that feminism means
"exclusion of men". I do think feminism requires looking outside the model
or the hierarchy established by a male-dominated profession; that it doesn't
necessarily mean just slotting ourselves and our work with mothers & babies
into a position that's already sitting there on the organizational chart". I
think that one of the roles of the LC "profession" is to *change* the model
of caring for families, so that "we" (LCs) are assisting "them" (parents) to
do what "they" want to do.

No, I don't really think we should just go away, and I sure wish that when
we were needed more "other" health professionals would refer to us - and
sooner rather than later!

Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC Ithaca NY

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