I was asked to post this today by ILCA's president.

Statement to the Lactation Community regarding Scope of Practice
 
The Board of Directors of the International Lactation Consultant Association
(ILCA BOD) met for its regularly scheduled meeting 27-29 October 2006.  The
ILCA BOD extensively discussed the controversy that had just arisen
surrounding the ³Scope of Practice² prepared by the International Board of
Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE), distributed in the congratulatory
packets to newly certified/recertified IBCLCs and posted on the IBLCE
website on 26 Oct 2006. The ILCA BOD has been tracking the intense IBCLC
reaction to this Scope of Practice:   on Lactnet, in individual e-mails
addressed to us as leaders of ILCA, and in e-mail groups of several other
subgroups of lactation professionals.
 
As a Board, we decided that IBLCE must have the first opportunity to react
to the outcry from lactation professionals about the IBLCE-posted Scope of
Practice. We now understand that IBLCE has decided to conduct an internal
review of the document, and we applaud that decision in light of the
significant substantive and reasonable objections that have been raised
about the Scope¹s current wording.
 
The ILCA BOD has advised the IBLCE BOD of its concern over the present
version of the IBCLC Scope of Practice.   We congratulate IBLCE on their
plans to conduct the internal review, and recommend that this review be
conducted by a group of practicing IBCLCs representing diverse,
international perspectives, as well as varied practice settings, to capture
appropriate input from the community of professional lactation consultants.
We also suggest that IBLCE consider posting any draft scope of practice for
a period of time on their website to allow for further public comment from
IBCLCs.
 
The ILCA BOD will review and research scopes of practice from other
professions. Often, it is a licensing board that defines the scope of
practice. One of the challenges is that our profession is certified but not
licensed. Also, since we serve an international membership, we may find that
scopes of practice are implemented and enforced differently throughout the
world.  Our hope is to identify a Model Scope of Practice that would serve
as a best-practices guideline for our global IBCLC members.
 
Despite the heated nature of this debate, the ILCA BOD is pleased that so
many practicing IBCLCs care enough about their profession to verbalize their
concerns to each other, to ILCA, and to IBLCE.  We encourage members to
continue to provide concrete suggestions for the IBCLC Scope of Practice,
and we welcome any input you think will assist your Board of Directors. If
you have any information on the topic of scope of practice, please send to
Liz Brooks, ILCA Secretary, at [log in to unmask]
 
Respectfully, 
Becky Mannel
President
ILCA Board of Directors

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