Dear Barbara,

I see your point about how the requirements were set up so long ago and have 
not been re-addressed since then. My main compliant is how easy it is to 
take short cuts to getting the BC hours. People count hours working with 
moms that maybe should not be counted, doing the same routine thing over and 
over again, or never cracking a textbook. Most of us know people who take 
the exam and pass but don't know what a test weight is or why they need to 
do them, what a HCP report is and how to write one, or even which textbooks 
are a must for any IBCLC.

As a profession, we need to go to some kind of college/university or 
technical school work. A two year AA degree might work if it included 
internship hours. The last thing I heard was how IBLCE wanted to make a 
lower status test -- but I have been arguing for making our standards more 
rigorous since I became certified.

The other thing we need to move away from is how everything is pretty much 
on the honor system. One can lie or cheat about one's BC hours and not get 
caught. One can count hours from years ago, or say one was supervised when 
the supervision is not really BF oriented or knowledgeable.

I think it takes the average person about 5 years of working with moms in 
the everyday counseling setting when self taught. Meaning that the average 
LLL Leader, nurse, dietician, etc. needs about 5 years of phone and in 
person counseling work, doing hands on help with latching and positioning, 
reading textbooks, and going to CE conferences, to be ready to be a 
"professional LC." Depending on who is their mentor or what kind of training 
is given and whether or not this training is daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

Kathy Eng, BSW, IBCLC 

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html