My name is Camille.  My babies are 20 and 17.  I have been an Lactation
Consultant since 1984. I have been lurking since December. In 1978 I became a
LLL Leader.  In 1983 I took the UCLA Lactation Educator Class and in 1984 I
took the UCLA Lactation Consultant Class.  I was in the first class  before
they banned non medically licensed people. I did not take IBLC, as I wondered
what it could do for me. If it gave me a license them I would have taken it.
 After about two years of being told you are not a nurse, I gave up and
enrolled in the prerequisites for the 2 year  RN program. Then there was a
two year or  more waiting list to enroll.  As I was taking the prerequists I
applied for a job "just to see if I could get it" as a home teacher for
infants from birth to three with developmental disabilities.(now called Early
Start in California)  I got  the job and one of the reasons was that I had
 experience going into people's homes as a Lactation consultant !  and
because I had taught post partum, early pregnancy, nutrition, Mommy and Me,
childbirth and breastfeeding classes to adults, they thought  I could also
teach parents what to do with there developmentally delayed infants. ( I am a
credentialed teacher.)  This job was only for 6 months as a grant but it
turned into a full time position and in 1996 I am still there.  I never
enrolled into the RN program but did finish the Anatomy, Physiology, and
Microbiology classes. So what about lactation? I did lactation for several
years, but only for those who could "find me." I then "fell into a job"  at a
physicians office about 4 years ago. I work two nights a week.  They think I
am wonderful, never contradict me and we work as a true team. I do not miss
the political wrangling I had as a lactation consultant in private practice.
Now I am getting my Masters in Early Childhood (Birth to Three) Special
Education.  Next Dec. I will be finished.  The moral of the story is do what
you love and do it well.  I did not finish my RN because I found something
else where I could help parents, and babies, which was what I really liked.
 I did not want to be a nurse to be a nurse.  I still work with nursing
babies ( new baby siblings of the developmentally delayed students, and
students who have very special circumstances whose mothers want to nurse
them, as well as the  doctor's office patients.) Some times I feel my
"accidental" lactation support in my teaching job is the best, as I just
happened to be in the "right" place at the "right" time. I am were I am
suppose to be and where I can do the best good.  Sometimes it is difficult
and takes time to discover where one belongs.
                              Thanks for all the wonderful information from
all of you.     Camille