Jeanette says,

> <<I am observing a transition in Lactation Consulting that is occurring with
> some but not all who are in Lactation...
> Some have been volunteers - and just as I did - have trouble charging for
> services the thought they once provided for free - but in fact, the
> services you now provide go way beyond the Leader or Peer Counselor - IF
> you are doing them at a professional level - charting, insurance,
> maintaining updates, communicating with other providers, follow-up and
> keeping records, buying and maintaining equipment...  all this is different
> from volunteer work - or should be.>>


Bravo -- she stands up and claps for Jeanette's words...

> <<Problems come when people DON't totally transition and just offer a
> "higher
> level" of volunteer work...  It makes it sound as if other Leaders are not
> "good enough" (which is totally incorrect as the Leader does HER job just
> fine...she is NOT a professional and never claimed to be...), or that this
> position is just an expensive hobby.>>


YES YES YES!

>
> <<But it is not just the volunteers that have troubles with transition...I
> am
> observing this also among nurses and nutritionists who think of the IBCLC
> as an "addition" to their already over-full job and work.  They, also,
> resent the "extra" expense of ILCA membership, maintaining credentialing,
> etc.  Nurses I work with resent having to use their personal time to take
> conferences and trainings related to their job -whether information on
> immunizations, on AIDS, on SIDS or on breastfeeding.  They feel their
> employer should pay for it all! >>

I hear this all the time from RN/IBCLCs....more times than I care to count.
"Well, if my employer pays for it, then I will come...."
 >
> <<What I do is NOT a hobby, is NOT volunteer work, and requires a great
> deal
> of self-discipline and continually increasing my knowledge not only of
> lactation, but of research, of writing, etc.  I have spent the last 5 days
> working in Excel trying to analyze breastfeeding data!  That is part of our
> work too - develop baselines, develop goals, develop ways of evaluating our
> effectiveness - to avoid the "definition of insanity: trying the same thing
> over and over again and expecting different results"...
> Sorry this sounds like a diatribe - I've been reading similar messages both
> in Lactnet and IBCLC2B - and the words just flew out....now I'll probably
> send this to myself and not mail it at all...>>
>
>
Thank you for sending it Jeanette.  Excellent -- well stated.  The shoe might
fit on a few feet in Lactnet -- might even pinch a bit.  Take heed....

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC -- Wheaton IL
Lactation Education Consultants
www.lactationeducationconsultants.com

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