The turn of this discussion on Lactnet has made me ask the question we
always should ask when trying to figure out why something is the way it is.
Who benefits from the new Scope of Practice?

Mothers and babies would not benefit because as of today, the only group of
people who have IBCLC-work as their livelihood and are subject to some kind
of limitation or regulation of their practice, is IBCLCs.  The others
currently charging money for helping mothers with breastfeeding can do
pretty much whatever they want.  I am not aiming at peer counsellors here;
they are volunteers, not paid, and most of them have a more finely developed
ethical radar than most of us.  The ones I know are exquisitely aware of
their limits.

IBLCE will not benefit.  On the contrary, this could be the beginning of the
end for them, if they don't revise the document and fast.

Anyone offering an educational program leading to some kind of title
including the word lactation, but that does not satisfy the practice hours
requirement to sit the IBLCE exam, would benefit from people abandoning the
quest for an IBCLC title and embracing whatever else is around.

In addition, there is the potential for some other professions who are
strategically placed to capture the breastfeeding guidance 'market' to pull
in some new clients if a whole practitioner group just shrinks down to
nothing, and members of these professions would have no external entity
leaning on them to keep them current in their knowledge.  I've never needed
such pressure but I'm glad it's there for the day when I grow weary of
renewing my knowledge and skills.  I want to be booted out to pasture when
that happens!!

I'm curious to know how IBLCE ensures that board members do not have any
conflicts of interest that would make them likely to support changes for
IBCLCs that are ultimately not in the IBCLCs', nor mothers and babies'
interests.

I'm also curious as to why IBLCE seems not to have had an attorney read
through this document before it got up on their website, because surely such
a person would have discovered the gaping hole of liability it opens,
through telling IBCLCs to make themselves vulnerable for complicity in
malpractice, which is what could happen if you fail to do your utmost to
correct a situation where things are going wrong and someone is being
harmed.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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