I have been lurking since my initial post many months ago.  I would like
to thank all the wonderful minds on lactnet for their information and
support.

I agree with Kathy and feel strongly that we need to mentor our
colleagues that either work with breastfeeding mothers and/or aspire to
become LC's.  We need to model to everyone what it means to be a
professional LC.  The reality is that many are thrown into the
designated breastfeeding coordinator role with varying levels of
expertise and interest in breastfeeding. Often they do not even have to
be an IBCLC for the position.  Some may earn the designation of IBCLC to
keep their jobs, but curiously (?) not be truly committed to promoting
and protecting breastfeeding. Sadly this can reflect poorly on all of
us.

I decided to become pro-active about this issue about 1-1/2 years ago.
At that time the designated hospital LC had seen a mother who had been
discharged the previous day and allowed her to sit in her breastfeeding
class.  Without a history, she manually tried to relieve this mother's
engorgement and put her on the pump.  I saw this woman the next day when
she called for an appointment (not recommended by the hospital RN).  She
was very engorged, had not really breastfed in the first 3 days post-
partum and the skin on her breasts looked mildly bruised. To summarize,
I refered her to her breast surgeon (she had a hx of several biopsies
and she was only 30) within 48 hours when the usual approach to
engorgement did not resolve the situation.  He aspirated a great deal of
purulent material and she discontinued breastfeeding (couldn't talk her
out of it).

This experience made me seek out the person at the hospital who I knew
to be an excellent nurse and caring individual.  I updated her on the
situation and began to encourage her to fully embrace the role of
lactation consultant.  I urged her to study for the exam, attend
educational events and provided her support and assistance as much as
possible before and after she passed the exam.

Rather than criticize her, I offered to share my practice with her in
every way so that she would become a valued resource to mothers and find
the silver lining in her new position.  Mentoring has helped both of us.
It has made me very aware of my own strengths and weaknesses and by
trying to model a high standard of practice has fostered excellence in a
new LC.

Perhaps we all can identify just one colleague, an LC or not yet an LC,
and mentor them in some small way.  It is not too disimilar to the cyber
mentoring here on lactnet except that we get to do it in person one on
one. We need to share knowledge and hands-on skills in order to promote
excellence in practice.

Maire Clements-Miranda, RN, BSN, IBCLC
Private Practice, New York City

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