"I am still hoping someone, anyone, will tell me what all the lactation designations actually mean"  

As far as I can determine, what they actually mean is that some courses decided to offer course-generated initials and others chose not to.  Course-generated?  Well, I can't set up a medical school and tell my graduates that they can call themselves MDs, even if I tell them that MD means, in our special case, Medical Diploma.  The MD designation must come from a specific external credentialing body, and it has a certain very specific and legally-protected meaning.  And the initials MD can't come from an external certifying body that I set up myself, or that I arranged to have as my personal external certifying body in a sort of reciprocal arrangement.  But I or my personal credentialing body *can* issue PPhDs ("Personal Philosophy Diplomas") or MDHs ("Medical Diploma Holders") and make the standards anything I/we want them to be.  The initials have no outside oversight.     

At its beginning, IBLCE sought permission to come under a pre-existing, well-established certifying body for allied health professions, the National Organization of Competency Assurance.  It had to qualify to join, and it isn't by any means the only credentialing organization that the NOCA oversees (it's 39th on the list; I stopped counting at "I"), though it's the only one on the list that has to do with breastfeeding. 

(If it matters, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies, or NCCA, is the actual accreditation body of NOCA.)

Like the credentialing bodies that allow qualified colleges and universities to offer BS, PhD, RN, MD, and so on, IBLCE chose not to provide a course itself.  It exists independent of all courses but under the NOCA unbrella .  Students prepare to meet its qualifying standards in any way they choose and, if they then pass the exam, are granted the initials.  Prep courses strive to meet *its* standards, not the other way around.   To the best of my knowledge the initials IBCLC (and RLC, or Registered Lactation Consultant, which all IBCLCs and only IBCLCs are entitled to use as well) are the *only* breastfeeding-related initials with this kind of rigorous, nationally- and internationally-recognized, non-course-related background, but the public doesn't know this - we ourselves often don't know it - and that's where the confusion comes from.

At least that's my understanding of it all.  

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY  USA
www.wiessinger.baka.com


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