I agree with both Jan *and* Heather and Magda on this one. Huh - aren't they
on "different sides"? I don't think so.

My first response to Magda's initial posting about the scale ad was like
Jan's - JHL is a professional journal, the scale is one tool professionals
may use, so I don't see it as a big deal. But - here's where I come in with
Magda - the increasing reliance, at least in the US, on "stuff" concerns me
a great deal. So the scale? Yeah, I do see that as a legitimate tool for
those of us who set ourselves up as "professionals" in the field of
"lactation" (which to me doesn't have the same flavor as "breastfeeding
support") - although I don't have one myself. And electric pumps - I hate
'em, but I will be first in line to concede that when we need them, we need
them, and if you're going to go for a tool, the more effective it is the
better. I don't have pumps either. (I do have ready access to scales &
pumps, so I'm not totally unfit to hang out my shingle!)

But I feel like I'm sort of stuck in a gap here: as lactation gains credence
as a professional field, with research-based science and entry-level
certification and expectations that WE are the pros to whom BFing concerns
should be referred, I also shy away from the increased reliance on the tools
of the profession - all the equipment and gizmos and pieces of silicone and
the "things". I want it both ways, and I don't think I get to have it both
ways. (Except on lactnet, where we are among ourselves and I can say it loud
and strong.)

I don't like it that as we become more widely-acknowledged as a profession,
we risk falling into the same trap some of the other professions have
preceeded us into. I don't like imitating the medical model of practice. I
don't like it that as I gain credentials I lose some freedom. I don't really
like being the court of last resort, seeing only the big problems that are
considered "important enough" to go so far as to actually pay a professional
to cope with.

I DO, however, like it very much that our science is bringing us forward and
out of the realm of mystery and folklore and the world of murky, faintly
repellent "woman stuff" (at least in a post-industrial culture). I like
being able to say "this is my story and I'm sticking to it and here's the
research that supports my practice on this". I like it that I can be paid as
an acknowledged professional (well, we have a ways to go but we're headed
there), and not be expected to pass out the riches of what I'm skilled in
for free - but I can if I choose to, and be respected for doing so; I can
exchange my skill and education for a basket of eggs or help cleaning my
house if I choose to, or for the satisfaction of helping women & babies
alone, or for about the price of an annual subscription to JHL. I like it
that we have foremothers and pioneers that have laid down such a basic and
important body of knowledge; I'd like to add my 2 bits someday.

Know what I mean? And we FOR SURE need all the voices, from sides and from
all parts of the globe! I'm pretty sure that the more voices we hear, the
better we get at listening. My "initials" will be up for recert next year -
and I may choose to let them go for a period and see how it is without them.

Cathy Bargar RN IBCLC Ithaca NY

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