Dear Friends:
    Jan B. asks some good questions:
"Where does it say that IBCLCs cannot recommend OTC drugs/herbs?  Let's start
there.  We are making an assumption that recommending OTC drugs/herbs is
"prescribing."  My dictionary defines "prescribing" as in advise the use of a
medicine, esp as in "prescription drugs", recommend, esp. as a benefit,
"prescribed a change of scenery", or "lay down or impose authoritatively."
    If I, as a licensed healthcare professional make a recommendation to a
mother that she take a specific drug, herb or remedy, she will hear my
recommendation as authority. I have to be careful because I can loose my
license. I am not legally permitted to prescribe for that reason.
    Think of this situation from a public health perspective, which means
aiming for the lowest common denominator of safety.  Many lay people will
take a practitioner's recommendation as an absolute direction, which is why
one must be careful about such things. What I would do for myself (which
includes using homeopathy for my family), I can not do for others because I
don't have the official recognition of authority.
    If the LC recommends a bath or a warm compress or an ice pack....no great
harm can be done. Whereas if the LC recommends a drug or an herb, even if
over the counter and commonly available, and the mother has a reaction or
overdoses and her baby gets sick or the herb masks a  serious condition, the
LC will be liable. The trained person is supposed to know better. None of us
get training in recommending drugs or herbs. I don't see in it our scope of
practice, either.
    Warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MSN, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CIMI, CSTP
Elkins Park (a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; northeastern USA)
supporter of the WHO Code and the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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