ILCA NEWS

Marketing Strategy Meeting Update
ILCA will hold its Marketing Strategy Meeting on March 31 in San Diego, CA. The goal of this meeting is to conduct strategic planning around promotion of the IBCLC credential, with the outcome being a marketing plan that can begin implementation in 2007-2008.

ILCA received 138 applications for the five slots representing various IBLCE practice settings. We would like to thank ALL of the individuals who submitted an application; each one represents incredible experience and expertise. In addition to these positions, ILCA has invited several organizations and lactation consultant affiliates to send representatives. These organizations include CLCA, VELB, ALCA, USLCA, IBLCE, US WIC, and NLCA. To see the complete list of participants, click here.

In preparation for this meeting, we ask all ILCA members to share ideas or suggestions through a downloadable Survey Form. This will provide further ideas on target audiences for promoting the IBCLC credential and advancing the profession worldwide, potential barriers, and ways to reach these groups. Please submit the survey form by March 1, 2007 to the ILCA Office. You can email it to info@ilca.org, or fax it to: (919) 787-4916. [read more]:

Membership Balloting in February for By-Laws, Best of JHL
In mid-February, ILCA members will receive a ballot to vote upon several changes to the association's by-laws and to choose the best article from the Journal of Human Lactation in 2006. Members electing to receive communications electronically will have an email and link to an on-line ballot; others will receive paper ballots in the mail. If you have questions concerning the ballot, or do not receive a ballot before the end of February, contact the ILCA office at +919-861-5577 or info@ilca.org.

By-Laws Changes
In general, these proposed by-laws changes address voting rights, Board transition, and conflict of interest assurances. The ILCA Board of Directors (ILCA BOD) has reviewed these proposed changes to the By-Laws (the rules describing how our organization is run), and passed a motion in favor of the revisions. The ILCA Board encourages the ILCA membership to vote to ACCEPT the By-Laws changes.

Click here to see the proposed changes and their rationale.
Click here to see how the by-laws would look if the changes were accepted.
Click here to see the current bylaws

Meeting between ILCA and IBLCE Board Members Proposed
ILCA President Becky Mannel and IBLCE Chair Roberta Hewat have made a proposal to their respective boards for a joint, in-person meeting to discuss areas of concern to the lactation community. The proposal (supported unanimously by the ILCA Board) calls for a one-day meeting in April 2007. Four to five members of each Board would attend the meeting, to be conducted by an outside facilitator (possibly recommended by the National Organization of Competency Assurance, NOCA, to which both ILCA and IBLCE belong). To see the full proposal, click here .ILCA will keep you informed as to the status of the proposed meeting as details become available.

Make a Gift in Honor or Memory
Support the work of ILCA through an honorary or memorial gift to the Scholarship Fund. Gifts of $50 or more and brief tribute statements of 20 words or less will be published quarterly in the eGlobe. Monies from the Scholarship Fund are used to help underwrite training for lactation professionals. Remember your friends and loved ones with a contribution to ILCA (which is tax-deductible in the USA and possibly other countries).

Donations in US dollars may be mailed to ILCA, 1500 Sunday Drive, Suite 102, Raleigh, North Carolina 27607, USA. For questions, please contact Kathyparkes@ilca.org. ILCA is a diverse community, and while we can expect personal beliefs to be reflected here because of the nature of tributes, such tributes are not intended for social commentaries outside the focus of lactation.

ILCA Creates Task Force on Scope of Practice for the IBCLC
The ILCA Board of Directors passed a motion in January 2007 to create a Task Force with a short term but vitally important objective: to review and revise the ILCA Scope of Practice, first published by ILCA in 2000.

Scopes of practice are usually tied to a licensing authority. IBCLCs have an international certification, but are not globally licensed. Regardless of IBLCE’s announced plan to review and revise the scope of practice which it proposed for the IBCLC, ILCA has an independent responsibility to evaluate whether its members, and others in the IBCLC profession, need a “scope of practice” in addition to ILCA’s (voluntary) Standards of Practice and IBLCE’s (mandatory) Code of Ethics. The majority of professions that are members of the US National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA, which ILCA recently joined) have scopes of practice that are produced by their professional association.

The Task Force timeline is quite ambitious, with a goal toward having a report to present at the ILCA conference in August 2007. Chair Jan Barger (Illinois, USA) is joined by ten other ILCA members in this important task.

Everyone is encouraged to share their comments, for all to see, on the Discussion Board thread on the Members Only side of ILCA’s website, www.ilca.org. You may also send specific questions, concerns, or comments about the scope of practice for an IBCLC to Liz Brooks at elizabethbrooks@ilca.org.

Read on to learn about Task Force members and mandate … [read more]:

IBCLC Day 2007

Happy family at an IBCLC Day event in 2006

Wednesday March 7, 2007 is IBCLC Day 2007–only a month away! IBCLC Day is a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness about the unique care IBCLCs provide to mothers and babies in your community. Consider submitting an article and photo to your local paper or workplace newsletter (see the ILCA website for a press release [hotlink] you can personalize). If you are planning to hold a celebration, contact the media (TV/radio/newspaper) to have coverage of your event. If your local coalition meets on a different day, hold your celebration then--any day is fine to celebrate! Check out the ILCA Bookstore for promotional items you might want to have on hand to give out at your celebration (balloons, pens, retractable badge holders, posters, logo pins). One group is purchasing ILCA retractable highlighters from World Breastfeeding Week to hand out to coalition members to "highlight" the unique role IBCLCs play in drawing attention to the Code.

Don't forget to submit your ideas and photos to ILCA's IBCLC Day Coordinator, Kendall Cox, at kendallcox@ilca.org. Check the ILCA website and Discussion Board to see how people are celebrating around the world!

Call for Research Grant Applications
ILCA awards competitive small grants to ILCA members who submit proposals with scientific merit. Currently the amount of the award is $4000. Grant applications are due April 1 of each year. If after reading the grant application (PDF file) you need more information about ILCA Research Grants, contact the Research Committee Chair, Joan E. Dodgson, PhD, MPH, RN, IBCLC, at dodgson@hawaii.edu.

Preparing Lactation Professionals? Choose Course Accreditation
ILEAC reviews, evaluates and accredits lactation education programs that provide a minimum of 18 clock hours of didactic education and meet the specific criteria of excellence, as established in ILCA’s Education Standards. Accreditation by ILEAC is a voluntary, non-governmental, formal peer-review process, founded on the philosophy that the process of accreditation encourages lactation education programs to strive for excellence and to evaluate themselves according to the established criteria and standards of the profession. Information about the five accredited courses is in the Directory of Course Providers.

For more information on the application process and accreditation requirements, visit ILEAC’s accreditation page on the ILCA website or contact the ILCA office at ileac@ilca.org to have the information emailed

World Breastfeeding Week 2007:
Breastfeeding: The 1st Hour--Save ONE million babies!
The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) has announced the World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) 2007 theme: Breastfeeding: The 1st Hour--Save ONE million babies! Considering the huge impact breastfeeding in the first hour makes on getting mothers and babies off to a good start, this year's theme is a great focus for all of us, no matter what our local breastfeeding rates are! WABA is also sponsoring its first ever WBW photo contest. The deadline is March 15, so get your camera ready and send in your photos.

Please visit the ILCA website in the coming months as you make your World Breastfeeding Week plans and post your ideas on the Discussion Boards. Questions? E-mail Kendall Cox, ILCA's World Breastfeeding Week Coordinator, at kendallcox@ilca.org.

MEMBERS IN THE NEWS

Japanese Association of Lactation Consultants (JALC)
Submitted by Yasuko Watanabe, the president of JALC

Officers Tomoko Seo, Hiroko Hongo, Kikuko Oku, and Masumi Imura with Sue Cox

2006 was a very fruitful year for the Japanese Association of Lactation Consultants. We invited Ms. Sue Cox, then President of ILCA, to speak at our annual conference in February on "Positioning and Latch-on" and "Prenatal Education." In June, we had a seminar in Akita, a city in northern Japan, which had more than 600 participants who are involved in breastfeeding support. In October the second Breastfeeding Support Seminar for Physicians was held in Nagoya with more than 120 physicians, who were interested in learning more about breastfeeding support. Ms. Ros Escott and Ms. Karolyn Vaughan from Australia visited Japan and held seminars on "What's New with Baby-Friendly" and some other topics. Most of all, we are delighted to have as many as 180 new IBCLCs in Japan. I am happy to report the activities of JALC in 2006 and plan to be even more active in 2007.

"Biological Nursing" - My Impressions
Submitted by Alison Blenkinsop, RM, Dip HE, IBCLC Aldershot, United Kingdom
A few years ago, I attended a conference in Canterbury, England, and heard midwife Suzanne Colson speak about Biological Nurturing. She had discovered through years of observation of mothers and babies in the early postnatal period that they often breastfed more easily in positions and postures which have traditionally been frowned upon. In some recent books, including a wordless leaflet developed by the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, illustrations of mothers leaning back are crossed through with a large X to indicate that this posture is WRONG! But Biological Nurturing is now here to stay;Suzanne has just been awarded a PhD for her research, which shows that there are many more primitive neonatal reflexes involved in feeding than have previously been described. These reflex actions are triggered better by the positions and postures she has been advocating. I have discovered this for myself. [read more]:

CALENDAR

February, 15
Ballots sent to members for by-laws change

Feb 28
Deadline for Group Memberships

March 1
Deadline for Poster Presentation submissions for 2007 ILCA Conference

Deadline to return Marketing Meeting Survey

March 7
IBCLC Day

March 15
WABA Photo Contest

March 30, April 1, 2
ILCA Board of Directors Meeting, San Diego, CA, USA

March 31
Marketing Strategy Meeting

April 1
Deadline for Research Grant Applications