I agree with Marsha and Kathleen that, given the choice between the two, ILCA should write standards of practice, not the IBLCE BOD. OTOH, there are a several important concerns to address. One is that ILCA clearly and knowingly abdicated that authority to the IBLCE BOD, since they were aware that this was happening and even collaborated to a point. This is very concerning--how could it happen that ILCA did not put a stop to this in the first place. We are often only powerless when we allow it and I worry about a BOD (ILCA) that has allowed itself to be so powerless as compared with the IBLCE BOD. Secondly, there are contradictions and confusion within the guidelines written by ILCA as well and some are pretty significant. Even so, the ILCA BOD does seem to more consistently reflect real practice and I have more hope that they could do a good job of tearing down the old structure and creating a truly functional one. Thirdly, we would really need to add a formal registration process and not have ILCA membership be optional OR we would need a third organization that is responsible for registration and ethics, separate from ILCA and the IBLCE. Again, I encourage everyone to look at the CPM info I linked to earlier--it is an excellent framework for us. The fact that midwives in the US have a difficult time with the medical establishment's attempts to fully control birth is actually not an indicator that this is the wrong model, but rather evidence that it is the right one. Look at what has happened to birth b/c it has been medicalized-- if we follow the path we have been going down, then we will have succeeded in fully medicalizing infant feeding as well. I'd much rather we as a whole took the physiologic norm as our mantra! Jennifer Tow "Breastfeeding is the practice of mothering". *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET email list is powered by LISTSERV (R). There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html