Lynn, I feel I must respond to your input in this discussion and respectfully disagree. Please, Lynn, this is in no way meant as disrespect for you or your skill set. As a non-RN IBCLC, whose breastfeeding skills were honed in the community, picking up the pieces after one hospital intervention or another, I have welcomed the addition of the IBCLC profession to the team of HCPs available to birthing families while still in hospital. There is a fine hospital based non-RN IBCLC right in our neck of the woods. Anne Merewood is the LC for Boston Medical Center, the first Baby Friendly hospital in the region. She directs a program in a facility with a significant rate of high risk mother-baby dyads, a very busy NICU, and the responsibility for educating a diverse staff. She is a great believer in the power of the team approach to patient/client care. She is also a Nursing Mothers' Counselor, and has been a real force in the community. I admire her greatly for taking on the challenges she has, and I am proud to have her as a member of our organization. I am always concerned when the medicalization of what is generally a normal physiological process, e.g., birth or breastfeeding, occurs. This does not mean that I support acting out of ignorance in the name of keeping things "natural". But I have to say that in the 15 years that I have worked with mothers and babies, I have seen more damage to breastfeeding done by the ignorance, or willful obstruction, of medical professionals (RN or MD), than by LLLLs, NMCs or IBCLCs in the community or in hospitals. I absolutely agree that there is no substitute for education and periodic evaluation in any profession. I am concerned, however, that there is a great divide emerging in our profession, that will ultimately shut out a significant number of trained, talented and caring IBCLCs as the western allopathic medical establishment circles its wagons to protect its position and power. The Gold Standard is the IBCLC, and will remain so. It is the only way to assure the level of knowledge and clinical skill needed to protect the breastfeeding mother-baby dyad in a very Baby Unfriendly society. I think we all have the same goal in this, and we need to keep talking to each other. Whew! Sorry about the length of this. I guess I felt more strongly about this than I realized. Getting off the soapbox. Feeling a little faint from the altitude..... Beth Sargent, IBCLC (and proud of it) Past (& future) Co-president, Boston Assoc. for Childbirth Education & Nursing Mothers' Council *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html