People who want to help bf moms or participate in bf advocacy do not need an ibclc credential. This comes up periodically on lactnet. Lactnet is not strictly for the ibclc and never has been so I hope everyone will stay on and participate, don't go back to lurking. From the IBLCE brochure: "IBCLCs are allied health care providers who, by meeting eligibility requirements and certifying..., possess the necessary skills, knowledge, attitudes to facilitate bf..." Not everyone wants to be or needs to be a "health care provider". Just want to point out that even volunteer counselors have a training and mentoring to go thru (not experienced directly with this but this is my understanding), an expected knowledge base, a professional hierarchy to go thru when help is needed, and ethics etc. This is in place, I would assume, to assure a certain level of care and to protect the public. This is very similar to ibclcs having a bf curriculum, minimum competencies, a board, etc. to protect the public. This is not a flame however I want to point out that if one is being paid in eggs or having one's house painted that is still being paid for one's services. This is called bartering, and I would accept this if a person could not pay me in dollar bills. I have heard of many ibclc's that do the same. Laurie Wheeler, IBCLC, MN, RN Violet Louisiana, s.e. USA _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp *********************************************** 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