From one of our subscribers.....



Our profession is changing whether we want it to or not, and we need to
figure out how to keep the "art" in it - I don't have the answer...

At first, we were mostly volunteers - brought to the profession by our own
drive to learn, so that when the boards came around, we were well above the
minimum number of hours of mother-baby interaction, but needed extra
reading (didn't have lots of places to go for trainings) in order to learn
the unusual or that which we had not been exposed to.

So those first LC's were passionate and demanded a lot of themselves - both
in the psychosocial supportive role as well as the scientific-studies role.
 BUT there were few studies and we really flew "by the seat of our pants"
in many situations - how I wish Lactnet had existed then!

Currently there are those who work as nurses or nutritionists and are being
told "we need a Lactation Consultant , so go to the .... course and then
prepare for the test - we'll pay for the training."  Or worse yet, "you
like to help moms breastfeed, so we'll create a position and you can be the
LC for our agency.  If you want training, we'll try to find a 4-hour or 8
hour course somewhere, but you'll have to take your own time and go."

(So far I have NOT met anyone who says "you're making so much money, I want
to do the same, so I'll become and LC..." - but maybe the time will
come???)

It is these people who are now becoming LC's that the IBLCE is trying to
educate by requiring more time spent in mother/baby (though the floor
nurses just count all their floor time and sign off on that) interaction.

My concern, therefore, is that we need to maintain a high level of
requirements - mixed between the studies and the observation/training - of
mothers and babies of _many ages_ and not just newborns, in order to make
sure that the "art" is kept with the "science".

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