Hi fellow Lactnuts!  I'm still alive, but not reading my digests until I
finish the fee study.  I'm still crunching away those numbers from all you
helpful, generous practitioners.  The total number is well over 200, but I'm
subsetting the international respondents for a separate analysis (don't
fear, your replies will be used in some way).

I have ONE more request...sorry, but I really must ask...only two people
have responded that they will accept trade items or services (barter) for
their LC services.  Could any of you ANYWHERE (even if you didn't reply to
the survey) please email me if you have ever accepted anything in trade for
LC services?  To give you an idea, I have often taken services from those
without high income, but with skills or other resources.  We've had:
horseback riding lessons; woodworking on our remodelled home; organic
produce for several months; a new door; an office sign; printing of flyers;
etc.   I'm really curious as to whether I'm just strange or if some of you
just didn't think to tell me.  I actually like this form of reimbursement
because it personalizes things more and we live in an area that is
technically rural (although it's a university town of 50,000) with many
artisans and craftspeople.  I guess technically we are supposed to report
these things as income.  We just value them as follows:  I give someone a
bill for the true value of service and they provide that amount of their
service for me.  In the course of meeting with people in their homes, I
usually discover many of their talents.

 I have also found people who have their received care this way are less
likely to be embarrassed and more likely to call for other problems than
those that I've given completely free care to (although now I have everyone
give at least a token amount).
Warmly,
Chris

Chris Hafner-Eaton, PhD, MPH, CHES, IBCLC    [log in to unmask]
mom, wife, educator, lactation consultant, researcher, scientist, author,
organic gardener, photographer, lapidary creator, lousy cleaner.

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