Linda,

Your "assistant" can sit for the IBCLC without first having a college degree.
A local LLLL took the exam in 1994 and passed very comfortably.  She had also
taken the UCLA CLE course which helped establish even more credibility
beforehand.  I do not think they'd have let her try the exam without the CLE
behind her.  I'm sure  there are many other  women like her in the same
position:  skilled in assisting mothers breastfeed, an interest in proving
her abilities by taking the IBCLE, but no college degree.

 Maginnis and Associates provides insurance to people like us.  I had a
million dollar coverage when I was just renting pumps and a volunteer with
Nursing Mothers Counsel (similar to LLL).  I didn't have any letters after my
name; they considered me an Allied Health Therapist.  The cost is exceedingly
reasonable considering how sue happy our country is.  They can be reached at
1-800-621-3008.

I strongly believe that we should encourage women from diverse disciplines
and backgrounds to become IBCLC.  We each take our new piece of paper (and
all our newly acquired knowledge) back to our work, whether we're
Occupational Therapists, postpartum nurses, intensive care nurses, Registered
Dieticians, physicians, Speech Therapists or LCs in private practice. We each
have our strengths.  I don't think most ICN nurses would feel comfortable
working with a four month old who's falling off her growth curve.  I don't
think most LLLL would feel comfortable with a hospitalized 800 gm. infant.
IMHO, it's not the college degree, or even the continuing education hours
that makes for a good LC, it's the hours and hours of working with moms and
babies.  There is  no substitute for those hours!  Many of the women I know
professionally have wonderful, long backgrounds with volunteer organizations,
not college degrees.

IBCLE gives us a way to demonstrate our skills, advertise our expertise to
the public and
a way for us to remove incompetent individuals from our group.

Elizabeth