Can you be a Lactation Consultant but not RN?

Nurses General Nursing

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I have been trying to contact at least 5 area hospitals asking if I can start volunteering as a Breastfeeding Counselor so that I can collect my 2,000 hours needed to become an IBCLC. Does you facility employ lay IBCLC's or are they all RNs? I'm willing to take the specialized courses and do the time for volunteering, but I am getting no answers back from these hospitals! Please help! :o I've decided this is what I want to do, but if I can't get in a hospital as a volunteer, I will try for my Child Life Specialist Certification instead...

Rhonda

Specializes in OB, lactation.
I have been trying to contact at least 5 area hospitals asking if I can start volunteering as a Breastfeeding Counselor so that I can collect my 2,000 hours needed to become an IBCLC. Does you facility employ lay IBCLC's or are they all RNs? I'm willing to take the specialized courses and do the time for volunteering, but I am getting no answers back from these hospitals! Please help! :o I've decided this is what I want to do, but if I can't get in a hospital as a volunteer, I will try for my Child Life Specialist Certification instead...

Rhonda

Hi Rhonda,

I'm an IBCLC, maybe I can help a little bit. I got my IBCLC hours through being a lay breastfeeding group leader. (I also started nursing school during that time, but became an IBCLC before I finished nursing school - I am now working as an L&D nurse - the community hospital I work at does not employ any IBCLC's, neither in my small town do).

Most, if not all, of the people that I know got their hours through volunteering as a group leader, being a peer counselor (like someone mentioned, WIC often uses peer counselors), or through being a nurse in labor/delivery/postpartum.

The thing about volunteering at the hospital, is that they are probably going to be reluctant to allow this if you have no formal training/certification to qualify you to give patient care. They may possibly allow a mentor-mentee type of training relationship if you are being directly supervised by an IBCLC who is employed there. Even that may be questionable because it is patient care and they may question the liability issue. Group leaders, nurses, IBCLC's and peer counselors are usually covered either by their facility or governing organization with , &/or covered by their own insurance. For that reason, I'd imagine that it may be hard to accumulate your volunteer hours in a hospital setting without being a mother/baby nurse. Not to mention that it would take an awful lot of time volunteering at the hospital for someone not even employed there/getting paid for it (it takes most people at least 5 years to accumulate the hours needed to sit the exam, as you probably already know).

However, I know that you can use supplementary pathway H to reduce your total amount of hours needed for the IBCLC certification/board exam and that would utilize something of the hospital volunteer sort. For this, and to find out for sure about volunteering anyway, I would keep at trying to contact the hospital's IBCLC's directly. I would think that you should be able to get through to one by just asking for a lactation consultant, as they should be used to getting a lot of phone calls for help from nursing women who have been discharged. If you are able, go in person to the lactation centers.

Most (not absolutely all but by far most) hospital IBCLC's that I know are nurses. Hospitals do tend to want that. As an IBCLC in private practice this wouldn't be an issue. But you may not be able to make much/enough money in private practice depending on where you live (what demand there is for a private practice IBCLC), what your overhead is, what reimbursement you may be able to get, (do most of your prospective clientele have private insurance, wealthy or poor area, medicaid, self-pay). etc. Will this be something you will want to do part-time, full-time, need a full income, how much, supplemental income, etc.??? Things to think about/ check in to. Again, those local IBCLC's would probably have a lot of insight for you.

I would also contact the IBLCE directly with all your questions. You can call at 703-560-7330. They were very helpful when I had questions. Plus it's always best to get it from the horse's mouth anyway. Tell them your situation and ask how you may best accumulate your hours, what suggestions and ideas they have. They can also send you a good information packet if you haven't already gotten it!

Best wishes - email me if you'd like,

mm

Have you checked with WIC and the dept of social services. Also check on any county or private mother baby centers. Talk with some midwives all of them could (if they chose to) let you get your hours with them.

I work with an IBCLC who is a dietitian and also a certified diabetes educator, so it is possible. I've been interested in this as well. The number of hours required prior to taking the exam are a little overwhelming!

I'm not a nurse....yet. One of the many reasons I'm pursuing my BSN is because I have to be an RN to use my credential. I don't use it at all now. I'm also a LLL leader and the two are mixed causes so I just do LLL work. I think it's becoming mandated in most stated that IBCLC's have to be an RN unless they just do private practice work.

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