A recent post seemed to imply that evidence-based practice means we can
only recommend those things that have research evidence.  A look at
ILCA's paper on evidence-based practice will show that there are several
levels, the top being well-controlled and replicated double blind
studies, then several other levels of research.  The last level is
practice that is based on experience.  (I don't have the paper with me
at this point to get the exact wordings.)  It is valid to use the
collective experience of our peers as long as we realize that is the
basis and there are at this point no well done studies on the issue.  As
we grow as a profession, we will hopefully have more and more of our
practice backed up by research, but in the absence of research in an
area, using the experience of experts is valid.  And, of course, there
are some areas that will never have the randomly assigned double blind
type of study.  (Can you justify telling one mom she must breastfeed and
another that she can't in order to get a true double blind study?!)  At
this stage of our growth, we would be severely limited in our ability to
help moms if we were limited only to those interventions that are backed
by "pure" research!
Winnie

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