Those of us here on Lactnet are rather preaching to the choir.  We know
non-RN IBCLCs can be hired, and do excellent work at hospitals whose hiring
administrators are enlightened; I am one of those so employed.

We know that entry into our profession, as the pathways currently stand,
also highly favors those who are already employed in maternal child-health.
 Who else but an RN on L&D, a CNM or midwife, or an MD seeing mothers &
babies has ready-made clinical access to lactating mothers and children?
 By the hundreds of hours, no less?  Begging the examination of how
structural racism keeps this profession an unattainable goal by those in
under-served, low-opportunity or diverse populations.

In the extraordinarily tight economic times that we are in, and with the
extraordinary cost of providing healthcare, we all can appreciate The Truth
that Jan speaks: most hospital administrators are going to look to optimize
*their* economic risk by hiring that RN IBCLC who *can* be scheduled for a
non-lactation-dedicated shift.  We IBCLCs loathe this, but it is A Fact.
Our finding it galling, annoying, wrongful, even bad for BFg is not going
to change the economic forces at work right now.  The Suits do NOT wake up
everyday looking for ways to make the careers of IBCLCs easy.

And this is not a USA-based issue, by any stretch.  Ask the IBCLCs in the
UK or Canada or New Zealand how their health systems pay for
community-based IBCLC care.  Ask the IBCLCs in Greece or France -- most of
whom HAD to become physicians or midwives first, in order to be allowed any
kind of clinical access to mothers and babies -- how the credential is
viewed.  Ask the lactation workers in remote regions of Russia or China how
in the heck they hope to acquire hundreds of supervised clinical hours when
those countries have fewer than ten, yes ten, IBCLCs.

We all know the the key to making "the market" (mothers, administrators,
public health administrators, governments) better appreciate what an IBCLC
is, and does, is to market the profession and credential.

So -- as Norma suggests, "Aux armes, citoyennes."  But let me also suggest
that there is strength in numbers.  There *is* an international
professional association for IBCLCs, and I can't think of any other body
(other than perhaps our credentialing organization, and our lactation
education accrediting organization) with a greater interest in promoting
the IBCLC.  If not us, then who?

But let me also say the obvious.  It is an individual membership
organization, run by a volunteer leadership infrastructure.  YOU have to
join to provide the numbers, and the financial resources (through your
annual membership fee) to do whatever it is that needs doing to promote the
IBCLC. Pony up, join ILCA, join a committee, run for a Board position,
draft an advocacy piece, be a part of crafting clever solutions or
innovative marketing.  Pick up an oar, and help move this boat.

Yes, yes, that is what you'd expect me to say, but I really mean it.
 Fresh, new faces and voices are important for leadership.... lots of fresh
new members are important for fiscal strength.

-- 
Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC, FILCA
Wyndmoor, PA, USA
Hugely self-interested without one iota of apology in this post as ILCA
Pres (2012-14)

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