AJ:
None of the non-LC flak is meant to apply to health care professionals who are
knowledgable about breastfeeding.  If every RN were supportive of and informed
about breastfeeding, we would not be seeing so much iatrogenic breastfeeding
failure.  Please, please continue to assist your patients to breastfeed their
infants.  What is frustrating to LC's is when a hospital or health service
promotes non certified persons as LC's, preventing mothers who truly need LC
care from getting it.  Imagine if your hospital took nurses aides and expected
them to do the job of an RN, then denied you a job because they already had
all their RN positions filled with aides, then advertised to the public that
their staff were genuine RN's!  This is what many of us are up against.  We
are judged by the actions of the undereducated, inexperienced non-LC's;
mothers are not getting the assistance they need; and our colleagues in the
health professions are none the wiser.  I think you hit the nail right on the
head when you said we all need to know our limits.  With the pace of
biomedical research and information dissemination, no one health care
professional could hope to cover all the bases.  This is what makes a team
approach so effective.  Our frustration with this issue is in no way an
attempt to keep other health care professionals from assisting breastfeeding
mothers, but to keep uncredentialed persons from calling themselves LC's.
Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC