i find melissa's comments very interesting, especially about the potential for
litigation to cause changes in breastfeeding management in hospitals. i have
been thinking a lot about this lately. my particular thought is about
institutions where they have persons with the title "lactation consultant" who
are not IBCLC. don't misunderstand me, i know full well that there are IBCLCs
who are not doing the greatest jobs, and people with other training that are
fabulous at this work, but what i see is a lot of hospitals in my area and
very few IBCLC.

so my thought is that, if i were a patient and were seen by someone who said
they were "the cardiac specialist" and i later found out they were not a
board-certified specialist, i might feel there was something misrepresented,
especially if i received poor advice or management by that person. so the next
time someone announces to a patient that she is "the lactation nurse" and
proceeds to give out reams of bad, outdated, and just plain wrong advice, is
the institution liable because they had someone with inadequate credentials
working in this capacity?

when is the last time anyone saw someone who said they were "a doctor" but who
was not board certified?

i agree with melissa that more awareness on the part of patients/clients and
possibly even litigation (face it, in america, everybody sues) will change
things.

carol brussel IBCLC