[pirap]

After months of killing myself trying to decide what to do (Labor/Delivery or Postpartum Mother-Baby) I have decided the Mother Baby Unit is what best suits my personality so next month I will start my new position. For a long time I have thought about becoming an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and now I have the chance to pursue that endeavor. Has anyone else out there taken steps to become a CLC? How did you keep track of your hours, breastfeeding education, interventions, etc? I currently help expectant and new moms with education about BF as a "lay" person on the phone and occassionally in person but nothing in an official position-basically right now its "mom to mom." Any advice from current CLC or ones trying to become a CLC? Thanks in advance! (BTW I am a RN and currently work Med-Surg)

[babyktchr]

If you contact the IBCLC website, you can find out all you need to know to become certified thru their organization. It is a LONG process and very specific. You would probably do best to go right to the source to get your answers.

[pirap]

Yes I have contacted the site and have the handbook to complete the process..just wondering how others do it/did it.

[Snugglibumkins]

I'm working on my hours. I have taken a Breastfeeding Basics and Peer Counselor course since I volunteer for the WIC office. I have since completed my time with WIC and now work as a volunteer for the hospital. I live in rural Alaska and we do not have any IBCLC lactation counselors here to shadow, much less to offer assistants to moms. I also run the local breastfeeding support group.

You can anticipate that it will take a couple of years at least to get all your hours in. The IBCLC exam is only offered once a year in July, and you will need to have all your hours in before hand as well as take the week long class.

There are some on-line classed for Lactation Educators - but just like a Certified Lactation Consultant - the only initials recognized by the International Lactation Consultants Association (as well as many hospitals) is being and IBCLC.

Good luck. It's a great goal to have and I'm enjoying working towards it.

[Clarise]

I will be following this thread closely as I also want to achieve my IBCLC in the next few years. I am a recent graduate, and am taking the NCLEX in 2 weeks. I am also taking the CLC (Certified Lactation Counselor) training in 1 week. My goal is to obtain a part-time/2 day a week RN position on a postpartum floor in September.

Good luck to you!

[CMCRN]

I am an RN and an IBCLC. By the time I decided to go for my IBCLC I had allready been working L&D for 15 years so I took how many days a week I worked average time each day spent on breastfeeding and made the numbers work. I think a certain amount of lay hours are acceptable but you have to document them somehow. I took Lact-ED course initially, they don't exist any more but I did a review before I resat the boards at the 10 year mark that was very good and prepares you well for the boards

[mitchsmom]

Although I'm and L&D nurse now, I got all my hours as a volunteer bf group leader & sat for the exam during nursing school.

You are right to refer to the IBLCE directly for your information. Most people I know took 4-5 years at a minimum to acrue the hours and education needed to sit the exam. You could also maybe ask your question on the Lactnet listserv (be specific that you have already looked at the IBLCE info & that you were looking on specifics on how people kept track of/ calculated their hours). There is also a YahooGroup, IBCLC2B that you may be interested in.

Also be careful with the CLC vs. IBCLC designation; as you probably already know there is a confusing alphabet soup & you probably already also know that some people who take various courses or training, the week type course, etc. call themselves CLC's. For example, in my town the WIC breastfeeding coordinator calls herself a CLC (and is very knowledgeable in fact). But only IBCLC's have actually sat the board exam.

Anyway, best wishes! There are lots of great books, conferences, etc. out there to continue learning from (I learn more all the time)