Becoming a Lactation Consultant

There are several ways to go about becoming a Lactation Consultant. To sit for the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners you have 3 pathway options. The first option is to use on-the-job experience working with breastfeeding moms and providing lactation support. The second option is to pay for a human lactation and breastfeeding training course. And the third option is to work directly with a certified lactation consultant to acquire clinical experience.

WIC has breastfeeding counselors and from what I could tell, the only prerequisite was successfully breastfeeding a baby. So I inquired about becoming a breastfeeding counselor with WIC to rack up some clinical experience and get me closer to taking that exam. Apparently WIC's breastfeeding counselors are peer counselors and you must have been on WIC in order to work for WIC.

Strike one.

It was then recommended to me to shoot for pathway 3 and work directly for a certified lactation consultant close to home. The only problem is the closest LC to Kingsland is in Austin. Hour and a half drive each way to work for free until I rack up 500-1000 clinical hours, sounds like a great option. In that case, it may be cheaper to pay $800 for the online training and take pathway 2!

Strike two.

The up side of that revelation being, once I become an LC, I will have zero competition in Marble Falls, Kingsland, Granite Shoals, Horseshoe Bay, Llano, Burnet, and Fredericksburg. Another up side of the current situation is I subleased my clinic and started my "Maternity Leave" waaaay too early. I have plenty of time to do some self-study of Human Lactation text books and exam reviews. Many of these books I've found online, for free. And a third upside is I may qualify for federal grants or at least financial aid for the course work should I decide to go pathway 2.

In any event, I still have a lot of research to do. Less blogging more reading.