I caution those of you who work in a hospital based lactation center to be realistic when you propose a certain number of FTEs needed to do a particular job. Be sure you will be able to do what you say you can do for the number of staff resources suggested. Most of us overestimate what we can do with our staffing budget. Our hospital has about a 70% BF rate and about 1250 births a year. We are budgeted 2.6 FTEs for lactation center. Our staff is running ragged and we are constantly over budget. There are tons of things that do not get done and things that do not get done right. We round inpatients, see outpatients in our clinic, teach BF class for the education deptartment, field 600 - 700 telephone calls per month, participate in hospital and system activities, etc., etc., etc..... I do not know of a staffing formula. Whoever thought of the 1 FTE per 1000 deliveries must be living in a dream world or have a BF rate of <10% !! RE: Job Qualifications...... We have a systemized job description for lactation among our facilities. It does not mention RN as a requirement since lactation is not a nursing job. We hire for the IBCLC qualification and expertise and leave the nursing to the RNs. IBCLC is the major required qualification. Some of our most experienced IBCLCs are not RNs. The job classification and salary range is not the same, and it is not related in any way to that of the nurse. Pardee H. Hinson, MPH, IBCLC Carolinas Lactation Center Charlotte, NC [log in to unmask]