When I sat for my test this summer, I looked around the room at all  
of the women I had known for years and wondered why we were all  
sitting there, taking this ridiculous test--again. I have spent the  
past ten years, not only giving my best to mothers and babies, but  
learning everything I possibly could  about anything and everything  
that would shed light on some of the more complex breastfeeding  
problems I encounter, especially related to milk supply, birth trauma  
and structural difficulties, allergies and gut function and  
physiological modulation of breastfeeding on the human system. I have  
so much healing take place when I have been willing to help a mother  
explore all of her options to solve these complex problems and  
instead of being rewarded for my commitment, passion and skill, I am  
expected to prove very minimal competencies and then told I have no  
real framework within which to practice at all and indeed that I may  
only do so if I agree to serve the very system I know is responsible  
for the work I need to do every day.

While I was taking the test, I kept thinking how short-sighted it is  
of the IBLCE and for all of us that we are treading water rather than  
having the courage to move forward. I am not willing to spend another  
ten years of my life doing that, so whether or not the IBLCE or some  
other credentialing body takes a wiser turn, I will find a way to do  
the work that I do. I would be much more excited to be involved in a  
profession in which we come together as colleagues and teach one  
another about our innovations, our hypotheses and applications of our  
knowledge and skills both in a clinical sense and in a broader public  
health sense. I and others have posted before that an advanced  
credential is the right direction for us and during the test, I had  
this same conversation with several other experienced LC's. Susan has  
delineated a plan for this that I think is the most useful and  
inspired idea that has come out of this whole ordeal.

I am in!
Jennifer Tow

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