I also think that these new requirements will change the face of our
profession.  Those of us who came from other disciplines brought a wide
range of knowledge to the profession.  I am a teacher by profession.  Being
a lactation consultant is not just being able to plug a baby onto the
breast, but involves lots of teaching, lecturing, etc.  

 

If the profession is limited to nurses only, then most will be hospital
nurses who know mostly about breastfeeding in the first 3 days of life.  

 

Here, this is already happening.  I had a mom who invited a lactation
consultant to help her get ready to go back to work.  Breastfeeding was
going very well.  The lactation consultant was basically a hospital nurse,
and had little experience with older babies, not having had a LLL
background. She had recently passed the exam and started doing house calls.
She expressed great concern to the mother that the baby was feeding only 6
times a day.  She actually told her that this baby has to feed at least 8-12
times a day or she might become jaundiced and the moms milk supply will
greatly decrease.  Luckily, this mom questioned this in my forum and we
reassured her that there was no problem.  This hospital nurse/lactation
consultant was using the knowledge she had for the first 3 days, and really
should not have been doing house calls for older babies.  

 

In the future, there will  be no IBCLC's who are familiar with breastfeeding
older babies.  

 

I have some wonderful students who do not have a medical background and it
will be a real shame if they are not able to get certified.  Our profession
will lose many wonderful people.  

 

Our health ministry gave a one year course and certified hospital and well
baby clinic nurses all over the country.  They were being trained by other
hospital nurses who were newly certified IBCLC's , many of whom had very
little real experience and the most basic knowledge. ( I was not allowed to
teach them as I am not a nurse!)  Now all of the non-nurse IBCLC's in our
hospital have been fired...some great talent going to waste.

( I am still there because I now work in the hotel where moms go between the
birth and their release, and is not really considered the hospital by the
Health Ministry.)  

 

What is the difference between the Health Ministry certified nurses and
IBCLC's?  Obedience, loyalty to the institution rather to the mothers.  When
one of the artificial milk companies provided lunch for the nursing staff,
one of our RN IBCLC's refused to participate.  She nearly got fired for
that.  She was severely punished, sent back to changing diapers and taken
off of breastfeeding for a while.  The Health Ministry nurses do not have to
comply with the code.  And how many times I have been called to task for
supporting the mother and not the institution..basically for telling the
truth.  

 

It is very sad for our beloved profession.  JoAnne Scott is spinning in her
grave.  I don't think this is the direction she wanted this to go.  

 

 

Esther Grunis

Tel Aviv, Israel

 


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