Lisa brought up the topic of ibclcs seeing only those mothers who need 'expert' assistance. I think something we need to keep in mind is the differences between Australia and the US. In Australian hospitals most births are normal deliveries, the epidural rates are quite low and when they are used they are generally late in labour. There is a big move to natural birthing (or elective unwarranted caesars!!) and most maternity units seem to pride themselves on their 'breastfeeding on discharge from hospital' statistics. Also, all staff in birth suites and postnatal wards are midwives. They have specifically received breastfeeding education. OK now there's a lot of generalisations there - but on the whole that is the big picture. In Australia I would love to see IBCLCs available in all hospitals to see women who are having difficulties. Denise **************************************************** Denise Fisher, BN, RM, IBCLC BreastEd Online Lactation Studies Course http://www.breasted.com.au mailto:[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(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html