- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- babies today articles
- babies today q&a
- toddlers today articles
- toddlers today q&a
- breastfeed.com articles
- breastfeed.com q&a
- message boards
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
 |
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Helping Times Two
Careers in Lactation By Kelly Burgess
, which was founded in 1956 to promote "the womanly art of breastfeeding." At that time, breastfeeding rates had dropped precipitously.
"If you look back to the beginning of the 1900s, everyone breastfed or wet-nursed or children didn't survive," says Mary Lofton, spokesperson for La Leche League International (LLLI). "When birth moved from home to hospital in the 1920s and formula was introduced, breastfeeding started to decline."
In 1971, breastfeeding bottomed out, with some estimates putting it as low as 20 percent. Then, just a year later, thanks in part to the work of LLLI, that rate began to climb for the first time in decades. At this point, LLLI was still primarily a grass-roots organization that relied on volunteer mothers to counsel other women. However, it quickly became clear that there was a niche for lactation professionals in hospitals and on doctor's staffs particularly in cases where a mother wanted to breastfeed but had complications such as a child with a birth defect or where the mother herself was ill.
"The career field is directly related to women looking for guidance," Lofton says. "[LLLI] took the place of a whole generation of mothers who did not breastfeed and couldn't help their daughters with breastfeeding. As time went on, the medical profession was still dragging its feet, and there came to be a need for a health specialty to be available in the hospital for women who needed help."
In 1985, in partnership with the LLLI, the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE) was established to develop and administer a certification examination for lactation consultants. The goal was to set standards for the lactation consultant profession so women could be sure that the person counseling them actually had appropriate training.
"There are a plethora of classes and certificate programs for people interested in lactation careers," says JoAnne Scott, executive director of the IBLCE. "Many of them are wonderful programs. Unfortunately, some are weekend wonders that don't really teach anything. That's the milieu out of which board certification grew. I don't mean to indicate that all are not good or that all are bad, but it's harder for the consumer employer or mother to know what they're getting into from a certificate with no back up. When they are certified by the IBCLE, they have undergone rigorous testing and proven they have a high level of both education and experience."
