I am wondering exactly what it means to be part of the healthcare  
team. Yesterday, a friend of mine who is currently nursing her  
newborn (5th bf baby) told me that she is so terribly discouraged  
with the healthcare system in the US b/c it is not in any way about  
prevention and if a doctor knows nothing about nutrition,  
breastfeeding or holistic practices, then he has nothing to offer in  
terms of "health" care and can only offer "disease" care.  We have  
always argued that language is very powerful.  When a doctor asks a  
mom if she will "breast or bottle-feed", for example, the implication  
is that they are equal. The friend I have mentioned above saw a  
resident with her baby this week and was asked "So, you're not giving  
any formula?" She said it  made her feel as if the doctor assumed  
that she would be and thereby implied that she should be doing so.  
She said if she was a new mom, it would have been very confusing to her.

I have really thought about this in terms of our current SOP/Code of  
Ethics situation. Undisturbed birth, feeding at the breast,  
attachment, nutrition and exercise are the physiologic foundations of  
human health. Midwives, IBCLCs and most holistic practitioners  
generally understand this, so I want to know why we are jumping into  
the allopathic community when the foundation of our understanding and  
practice is prevention and holism? Why are there no members of the  
holistic community on the IBLCE Board? Which team do we want to play  
on and why?

The language in our SOP makes it very clear that we are advocates of  
the western medical model. The language defines this as the standard  
of care for everyone. Yet, when I was in China, massage, acupuncture  
and TCM were the standards of care. In my family (and among my  
community of friends), midwifery and homeopathy are the standard of  
care. I am sure that many others have similar experiences. It is just  
not okay with me that IBCLCs do not have the freedom to practice  
holistically, in culturally respectful and a truly ethical way.

Just because we have lop-sided the practice with allopathic  
practitioners does not mean, as has been implied, that the minority  
have no right to a voice, nor to help define the practice model (nor  
I am even convinced that we are the minority worldwide). I am at a  
loss as to exactly how we got to such a dismal place, but I am very  
willing to be a part of something completely different, a model that  
remembers the nature of babies and that feeding at the breast is  
inherently normal behavior and preventive care, not the domain of  
disease-based medicine. I have considered this very seriously and  
yes, I do want to be part of a "health care team", but one that is  
defined by the motives and skills of the practitioners, not the  
initials after their names.
Jennifer Tow

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