>Hi All,
>
>This is a really interesting discussion.
>
>I wonder how the new requirements will effect IBCLC hopefuls in 
>other countries that we haven't heard from yet? Jennifer Tow's 
>original post said that the new education requirements are very 
>American focused and are not necessarily possible to complete 
>outside of the US unless you become a nurse etc.
>
>In Ireland, where I am from (and I imagine in a lot of Europe and 
>elsewhere), the University / College system is not based on the US 
>credit system. You enroll, through a centralized system, in a full 
>degree program. The option of enrolling in one semester in a subject 
>for credit does not exist.


This is the same system as in the UK.  Courses are, increasingly, 
modular, in that they are built up in discrete parts which 
facilitates people taking a degree part time, over a longer period of 
time. But I could not 'dip in' and get a credit for a course and then 
'dip out' again....I would have to sign on for a degree and I can 
promise you, that is never going to happen!

The discussion as it has unfolded on Lactnet seems to indicate that 
new requirements are very USA-centric, with no indication that other 
countries' educational systems have even been looked at.

It also appears to me that other countries' health and social care 
systems have not been looked at, either.

In the UK, we have very few IBCLCs who work in hospitals as IBCLCs. 
They are midwives, with an IBCLC as an additional specialism. There 
are no more than a handful of IBCLCs who work for the health and 
social care system anywhere anyhow - and very few IBCLCs in private 
practice. When I say 'very few' I mean no more than a dozen or so in 
a country with 650,000 births a year. Of these dozen, even fewer make 
a living.  Please correct me, friends and colleagues in the UK, if my 
info is out of date.

There are other unqualified and unsupervised people in private practice, sadly.

Most of the specialist breastfeeding support in the UK is given by 
people like me, trained and supervised by the voluntary 
organisations. I reckon there are maybe 500 of us.

Then there are probably thousands of peer supporters.

If the IBCLC accreditation is to make more headway in the UK, then 
the last thing that should be done is to make it more US-centric. It 
needs to take into account the system as it exists, here and now.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
-- 
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk

http://heatherwelford.posterous.com

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