Wow, what a subject line!  When I first started to go to ILCA conferences, there were only a few women of childbearing age.  There were even a few conference where I was the only one with a young baby.  Now that I entered (physically, not mentally)  "middle-age"(no the other LCs have NOT gotten any older, only I did), I  wonder if we are still an "older" profession?  ILCA did a survey once upon a time that showed that most of the people certified as LCs (IBCLC of course) were mainly older nurses.  I wonder if that is still true?  Have we made any leaps and bounds into having lots of direct-entry LCs or younger LCs?  What are *you* seeing?

On the same page, once the jobs for LCs were nurse-LCs in hospitals.  Do we have a significant percentage of non-nurse LCs in hospitals now?  The trend seemed to me to be for hospitals to open lactation centers, then dissolved them and hired RN/IBCLCs for the floor.  Now it seems as LCs do not bring in revenue, so they are being let go.

Once the private practice LC workshop was thriving, then it seemed to slim down for a while and lately, it has grown again.  Is this a sign of the times- more and more IBCLCs are leaving or losing their LC jobs in hospitals and are taking up the private practice band wagon out of necessity?

I have also been surprised by meeting quite a few "aging" LCs who say they are not going to sit the exam again- out of fear of not passing, I think. Others say their job does not depend on the certification, and they probably have the reputation of being good at lactation, so maybe they really don't need the certification.  They don't get paid any more to be certified.

Reminds me of a song, "where have all the young LCs gone, long time passing..."  (my apologies to those not knowing 60's US music)

Are we an aging *profession* or are we a profession growing younger?

Terriann Shell

Big Lake, Alaska


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