Re: Re: Prescribing and LC

[Guest guest]

Thanks, !! I feel as though I am constantly banging my head against a brick wall on this subject.

Now -- I am going to say this: you HAVE to be knowledgeable about your subject BEFORE you start giving advice, recommending, "prescribing", or whatever. Being a newbie IBCLC is tough. There is a steep learning curve. If you are an RN and have been working in a hospital under the jurisdiction of physicians and directors and have to toe the party line -- it is even tougher to get out into private practice and suddenly begin working on your own. Take it slowly -- take it cautiously, and above all, READ -- talk to people -- go to conferences -- learn, learn, learn. Pay attention to people like and Genna and Marasco, and West, and all of those that have trod this path before you and learn from them. You aren't going to become a or or overnight. It is going to take years.

Becoming a good LC is like becoming a good parent. There is the anticipatory stage -- in which we are learning about parenting, and what it will be like, and taking classes, and imagining having that new little fuzzy baby, and all that sort of stuff. Then we have the baby and we are thrust into formal stage where we are questioning everything we do and want a prescriptive outline for how many minutes and how often and how much. From there, as we become more comfortable with our role as parent, and we allow ourselves the luxury of learning about OUR baby, and stop taking the parenting books so seriously, we move to informal, and finally to personal where we become "This is how I parent!" It isn't as though we won't listen to others who have gone before us -- it is just that we learn how to fit it into our own lens and experiential grid.

The same with becoming an IBCLC. We move through all these stages -- and for some of us, it takes longer to get to the "personal" than for others. And that's OK. Don't try to push yourself too fast and take on more than you know how to do until you are there. You aren't going to be a by tomorrow.

I have one analogy I'll leave you with. I'm not a cook, and I don't like cooking, and basically I don't cook, so this is a bit out of the realm of reality (and , it certainly isn't holistic, so...) for me but here goes. My daughter called me the other day -- we were discussing T'giving dinner which will be here, and she said she had been organizing her recipes and found some I had sent her. Here is the one for sweet potato casserole: One or two cans of sweet potatoes. (Some of you will probably dig same sweet potatoes out of your garden -- that's OK, that's just not me). Mash with some butter, some brown sugar, and some orange juice. Bake.

So Torrey said, "How much is "some"? And bake at what for how long?

I don't know....you just do "some."

She'll get it eventually, and maybe this T'giving when we are making the sweet potato casserole, I'll try and quantify the "some" for her.

And that's how lactation consulting goes -- in the beginning you need the recipes. But as you grow in the field, you will being using "some."

I've probably muddled all my metaphors here (I've never metaphor I didn't like), but I hope it makes sense. Meanwhile, please remember that advising a mother on the use of herbs, homeopathy, OTC, foods or naps is NOT prescribing.

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC, FILCAMy blog Year of the MC

I think we make a lot of problems for ourselves. Jan and Nice have both repeatedly stated on LN that suggesting zinc for wound healing, herbs for milk supply, a homeopathic remedy for mastitis or foods for mom's general good health are NOT prescribing and yet the argument arises again and again. Usually with folks coming down on the misinformed side of things and making life a tight wire walk for the rest of us.One site has it all. Your email accounts, your social networks, and the things you love. Try the new AOL.com today!