I just came across the following abstract in the latest issue of  
Health Sociology Review on LCs. I don't know how to access the  
article on line, but thought the abstract would be of interest.

Naomi Bar-Yam


Fluid experts: Lactation consultants as postmodern professional  
specialists

Katherine Carroll and Kerreen Reiger
Sociology Program, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Since their accreditation as a professional specialty in 1985,  
lactation consultants have grown in number and prominence in  
maternity care. In North America and Australia, breastfeeding  
management is now a domain increasingly presided over by certified  
experts. This article explores the way in which this speciality has  
established a distinctive identity that straddles seemingly  
contradictory maternalist, and medicalised, discourses. Drawing on  
professional sources and on a small study of Victorian lactation  
consultants, it explores the shift from the maternalist imagery  
characteristic of voluntary breastfeeding support groups, to a more  
complex message about breastfeeding as a contemporary social  
practice. We argue that the way in which lactation consultants  
negotiate complex relationships with peers and clients gives rise to  
a fluid professional identity. This reflects not only their  
historical legacy and recent changes in health systems and  
professional roles, but also a postmodern cultural context, in which  
women negotiate their embodied identities as mothers, lovers and  
workers. 

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