Lactation Consultants
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Should I Care About State Licensing for IBCLCs?
In 2014, the Rhode Island General Assembly authorized the Department of Health director to create a framework for the licensing of lactation consultants. In 2015, IBCLC Michael W. Fink of Memorial Hospital was first in the United States to be state-licensed to practice as an IBCLC. This is a breakthrough for IBCLCs all over the United States. Isn’t My IBCLC Certificate Enough? While the title IBCLC after your name gives you credibility, you are competing with a range of healthcare professionals and even lay people who may call themselves lactation consultants. Usually, state license guidelines and regulations clearly define who or who many not call him or herself a lactation…
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Lactation Consultants Boosts Mothers’ Contact with Newborns
Improving Mothers’ Contact with Newborns The recent statistics coming out of the New Hanover Regional Medical Center are further evidence that lactation consultants are key to improving successful contact with newborns and their mothers. In the last two years, since it adopted the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative begun at NHRMC’s Betty H. Cameron Women’s & Children’s Hospital, New Hanover Regional Medical Center has seen a sharp increase in mothers exclusively breastfeeding. Before the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative was implemented, only 38 percent of mothers were breastfeeding exclusively after their release from New Hanover Regional Medical Center. The number of mothers exclusively breastfeeding today? 78 percent. That means more than twice as many mothers at this…
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The Lactation Police
As someone who see lactation consultants as a group of professionals trying to help weary mothers and uncooperative babies, I hate to see them reflected poorly in the news. In the last week, The Washington Post published two articles that portrayed lactation consultants in a negative light. The first of these articles, Your breast-feeding and bottle feeding comments are unwelcome, calls lactation consultants “lactation torturers.” The second post, My husband calls them breast-feeding bullies, says that many see lactation consultants as medical professionals “who are seen as pushing breastfeeding by any means necessary.” As a lactation consultant, it is important to remember how often mothers feel like failures when they are unable…
