Hi all, confusion reigns supreme re titles! The term lactation consultant is an unprotected (legally) term which in essence, means anyone can use it. Including the RN at the hospital that has been to a half day workshop who administration has told, "you like bf, you be our lc" Yep, it happens, sadly enough. All other certifications, with the exception of IBCLC are program completion certifications - you have attended our program, completed our requirements, and you are certified. The difficulty with that is that no one knows what program certified you, or what qualifications the program has to certify you. And there are a lot of programs out there that confer certification of one sort or another. But it isn't certification according to NOCA (National Organization of Certifying Agency) standards which are very strict. IBLCE belongs to NOCA - in fact, I believe JoAnn Scott recently accepted a position on their Board of Directors - or something fancy like that. In any case, IBLCE adheres strictly to NOCA standards for certification which includes the criterion referenced (has to do with the way the exam is scored by a psychometrician) exam, the specific criteria which must be met before taking the exam, the recertification criteria, and the awarding of CERPS to programs offering such. There are also disciplinary measures which can be taken if an IBCLC is in flagrant violation of Standards of practice or ethics, and the IBCLC can be stripped of her certification by the IBLCE (not ILCA). in 1993 stated that "ILCA acknowledges the IBLCE examination as the professional credential for lactation consultants." At that point, some of the programs which had been confering certification on their grads (BSC was one of them) stopped doing so, and although they had always encouraged people to take the exam, encouraged it even more strongly. It is sort of like going to nursing school. All of us who are RNs went to school someplace - it may have been a 3 year hospital diploma school, it may have been a 4 year BSN program or a 2 year AD program. But the great leveler for us all were the board exams which made all of us RNs. Doesn't matter now which school we went to or how we got our education; what matters is that we qualified by passing the boards. Same with LCs. It doesn't matter which "school" we go to, the great leveler that tells us that we are qualified is that we passed the boards. Now, before some of you rise up and call me less than blessed, let me point out there are "schools" and "schools" and "courses" and "courses". Some are more complete than others - some are better than others - some will prepare you better for the exam than others - and some will prepare you better to practice as an LC than others. It isn't that it doesn't matter which course you take, it is how well you are prepared to function in the field. Even the IBLCE can't weed out all the practitioners that are no good - and there are some. There are poor physicians and poor nurses too. School and passing the boards didn't weed them out. So, don't blame the IBLCE if you know of a truly lousy LC somewhere - it isn't the fault of the exam - no exam is perfect. But it behooves us to encourage those who aren't board certified to become that so we can have some uniformity in the profession. The suggestion that someone made re sending letters to the hospital administration suggesting they have board certified help on hand rather than the home-grown "boob fairy" is a very good one. My fear for a number of years is that hospital based LCs are going to go the way of the childbirth educator. They will be hospital appointed and hospital trained, and not truly committed to the ideals of bf and the WHO Code. When was the last time you went to a hospital based birth prep class that was truly a "lamaze" class - that was preparing the parents for alternatives in childbirth and how to NOT take medication or an epidural? They are far and few between, and most people that teach them are in private practice - and many docs won't refer to them because the parents that come out of them are empowered to question what is happening and what is going on.... Oops - I feel a soapbox coming...... I'll jump down quickly.... To all you LCs in training - we're glad you are aboard, and wish you all the best as you continue to be in training before you take your board exams. And what a wonderful learning opportunity here on lactnet! Once again, thanks to the lactation midwives that birthed "us." See you in Scottsdale! Jan B.