When I sat for my test this summer, I looked around the room
at all
of the women I had known for years and wondered why we were
all
sitting there, taking this ridiculous test--again. I have
spent the
past ten years, not only giving my best to mothers and
babies, but
learning everything I possibly could about anything and
everything
that would shed light on some of the more complex
breastfeeding
problems I encounter, especially related to milk supply,
birth trauma
and structural difficulties, allergies and gut function and
physiological modulation of breastfeeding on the human
system. I have
so much healing take place when I have been willing to help
a mother
explore all of her options to solve these complex problems
and
instead of being rewarded for my commitment, passion and
skill, I am
expected to prove very minimal competencies and then told I
have no
real framework within which to practice at all and indeed
that I may
only do so if I agree to serve the very system I know is
responsible
for the work I need to do every day.
While I was taking the test, I kept thinking how
short-sighted it is
of the IBLCE and for all of us that we are treading water
rather than
having the courage to move forward. I am not willing to
spend another
ten years of my life doing that, so whether or not the IBLCE
or some
other credentialing body takes a wiser turn, I will find a
way to do
the work that I do. I would be much more excited to be
involved in a
profession in which we come together as colleagues and teach
one
another about our innovations, our hypotheses and
applications of our
knowledge and skills both in a clinical sense and in a
broader public
health sense. I and others have posted before that an
advanced
credential is the right direction for us and during the
test, I had
this same conversation with several other experienced LC's.
Susan has
delineated a plan for this that I think is the most useful
and
inspired idea that has come out of this whole ordeal.
I am in!
Jennifer Tow
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