New IBLCE Requirements

[Guest guest]

Oh, Anne!

I've been reading this thread and thinking that even though I am an RN I became an IBCLC because of LLL, having been a leader seven years. I am hardly medicalized in my thinking or approach to moms so I do disagree with the medicalization of the IBCLC profession. LLL shaped my philosophy of mothering and breastfeeding and I continue to meet each mom as an individual. Obviously, many of the best LC's around do not have an RN or medical background! Breastfeeding, like birth though, is becoming to be seen as a medical issue to be dealt with and this is not as it should be, obviously. But then there's no money to be had when things are approached as normal and natural.

I think for you, Anne, and many other wise women LC's this new set of requirements doesn't lessen what you have done or have to offer. I am thinking it's rather like midwifery which started out as a profession learned through observation, mentoring and experience and got taken over for the most part by requirements for RN background leading to CNM's. This take over with so much emphasis on formal medicine is sad and harmful. I am of the ilk to just keep on keeping on and do what I do to help moms knowing what I do is sometimes instinct and comes from the heart rather than the brain and book learning. The connection with moms is key, I feel, and this I learned from LLL and my own background and experience. Being an LC is both art and science and hopefully the art of this profession will not get lost in emphasizing the science. Sorry for the rambling and hope what I'm trying to convey makes sense. It just saddens me to see good people feel put at risk and begin to question their abilities.

Warmly, Barbara Latterner (who's a person first and carries the alphabet soup behind her name as a garnish)

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The new requirements make me very sad. They are a slap in the face to those who entered the profession as I did. I took the first exam ever given - after 15 years of intensive LLL work and reading everything I could ever get my hands on pertaining to breastfeeding and lactation. My score was higher than that of the physicians who took the exam. I've taken the exam two more times and always scored high. I finished high school at 16 and never went to college. I have continued my reading and gone to every conference and workshop my husband could afford to send me to, I nursed four babies of my own and watched/supervised seven grandkids and four nieces and nephews as they were nursed. More than 95% of the mothers and babies I have worked with have gone on to reach and/or exceed their breastfeeding goals. I know this because of tracked outcomes. I've been around long enough that I'm helping the grandchildren of the moms I worked with years ago. According to the new requirements I don't have the stuff to take the exam and work in this field. Wow. What a revelation for an old lady who actually thought she had made a difference in this world.

Anne Grider