Taking it from the top:
ILCA is the professional assn, and has the voluntary Standards of Practice
(Standards), and it encourages all IBCLCs to support the Int'l Code of
Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (Int'l Code). You can easily find the
Standards online at the ILCA website.
IBLCE is the credential-awarding organization, and has the mandatory Code
of Professional Conduct (CPC), which encourages but does not require IBCLCs
to support the Int'l Code. You can easily see the CPC online at the IBLCE
website
Both the Standards and CPC tell the IBCLC s/he must follow the laws of her
land and regulations of her workplace. If the Int'l Code has been
legislated in your country OR if you work in a facility that is seeking or
maintaining Baby Friendly status, then you *must* support the Int'l Code.
If YOU are paying to go to any conference, you are not violating the Int'l
Code to be there even if the Exhibit Hall is filled with Code-violating
vendors. The Int'l Code says you should not accept freebies ("financial
inducements") but if you are paying, you are hardly getting a freebie.
BUT if the conference is predominantly sponsored by a commercial interest,
or the companies control (wrote) the content being offered, it is probably
a waste of your money to pay to go to an informercial ... and it won't earn
CERPs at IBLCE to boot (see their policy about commercial influences on
education).
If you are BEING PAID to go to the Conference, i.e. to speak, you need to
be clear (I do it in my speaking contract) that none of fees to fund your
appearance come from ANY commercial interest. IBCLCs must be mindful of
overall conflict of interest (COI) issues, involving far more products than
those covered by the Int'l Code (which I maintain is just a subset of COI
for lactation). But if your appearance is funded from attendee fees, it
is OKAY that there are Code violators in the Exhibit Hall, or even if they
funded an identifiable element that you can avoid: a meal or refreshment
break. When you whip out your sandwich and everyone asks why you aren't
eating from the buffet, you can have a conversation about Code
compliance....
REGARDLESS, if this is a conference that is so heavily sponsored by Code
violators or other commercial interests -- even if funding for your
appearance there is "clean" -- then you may be tainted-by-association
simply be being there, and it may not be worth it to go. Example: I don't
care if Code violators are in the Exhibit Hall -- I can avoid going there
as a speaker. But if I don't want to stand at a podium with a formula or
bottle company name on the front of it (implied endorsement if a photo is
taken ...) ... and I don't want a flyer going around with my name right
next to the company logos (implied endorsement) .... and I don't want even
my "clean" appearance advertised on the website and social media venues of
those commercial entities.
Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC, FILCA
Wyndmoor, PA, USA
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