1511cf66_all_To_Action_on_Breastfeeding__Topic
[ID] 348 [Interest Areas] Health Care Provider Lactation Professional [Comment] Why doesn't Medicaid pay for lactation consultations by IBCLCs who are not nurses? There are numerous studies to point out that mothers are not receiving lacation care after they leave the hospital and the fact that private practice lactation consultants are in extremely short supply. There are very few BF clinics across the nation, unless one happens to be in a metropolitan area, and even then, most are staffed by nurses. One does not need to be a nurse to be an IBCLC and there are clearly discriminatory practices at work whereby non-nurse IBCLCs can not secure employment in the community. This is a travesty when the need for the services and educational expertise of IBCLCs is so obvious. Let's see the government fund a BF clinic in each community. Isn't it time we stop depending on our maternity clinics to provide this service, especially when these same clinics receive a great amount of government funding, but fail to allocate for the services of IBCLCs? Let's take BF completely out of the WIC clinic, too, for when state governments receive rebates from purchasing formula, it only fuels the budget for more formula. Isn't this an inherent conflict of interest, depending on organizations who receive the lion's share of their funding from NOT breastfeeding, but formula? [Topic] 
Access to Lactation Care and Support
Call To Action on Breastfeeding
Topic