Obtaining Clinical Experience

Most candidates meet the clinical experience requirement through their paid or volunteer work.  Licensed health care professionals who regularly assist breastfeeding mothers and children have an advantage in meeting the clinical experience requirement.
 
If you are a health professional who has been helping breastfeeding mothers and children for a number of years, you may already meet the clinical experience requirement. If you are a licensed health care professional who has not regularly provided breastfeeding assistance in the past, you may want to seek volunteer or paid employment in a hospital, birthing center, clinic or health department that will give you the experience required.
 
Candidates who are not health care professionals will need to be more creative and proactive in achieving this requirement.  In some cases, organizations such as the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) programs, local health department clinics, prenatal clinics, birthing centers, and doctor’s offices will employ individuals who are not licensed health care professions.  However a growing number of prospective IBCLCs are discovering that many institutions will not employ, in any capacity, individuals who are not licensed health care professionals.  These restrictions vary in complexity, depending upon the local and institutional laws and policies. 

If you have served as an accredited, volunteer breastfeeding mother support group leader within a supervised structure such as La Leche League or the Australian Breastfeeding Association, you can receive credit for your experience.  For each year of service, the IBLCE awards 500 hours credit toward the clinical experience requirement.  This credit applies only for those years that you served in an accredited capacity as a group leader and must be verified.  For more information about receiving credit for your experience as a volunteer breastfeeding mother support counselor, please read the relevant section of the Candidate Information Guide.

Currently, the IBLCE does place any time limits upon the lactation clinical experience requirement.  Candidates should keep in mind that the IBLCE certification exam for lactation consultants is based on current, evidence-based knowledge and practice.  If you have not worked with breastfeeding mothers and children in the past five years, you may want to consider seeking paid or volunteer employment in a setting that will provide you with an opportunity to update your clinical skills.  Alternatively, consider updating your clinical knowledge and skills through one or both of the Supplemental Pathways.

Mentorship programs are another way to obtain clinical experience in lactation management.  IBLCE has established guidelines for individuals to obtain clinical experience through structured training under the direct supervision of an experienced IBCLC.  If you wish to seek such training, you must submit an individualized training plan to IBLCE for approval before beginning your training.  For more information, consult the Pathway F Guide. 

No matter whether your experience comes from paid or volunteer work, you must be appropriately supervised, trained and qualified for the type of work you do.  Therefore, personal breastfeeding experience, as rewarding as it may be, does not count toward this requirement.  Additionally, private practice providing breastfeeding counseling in such unsupervised settings as doula services, breast pump rental and breastfeeding retail outlets may not be counted. 

The IBLCE will count only those hours that include periods when you were working in an accredited capacity and/or under appropriate supervision. 

» Accredited means that you were appropriately trained and qualified for the type of work you were doing and the setting in which you were practicing.

» Supervised means that you were practicing within an appropriately monitored setting or institution where, if your advice or actions were outside the scope of your practice, it would easily come to the attention of your supervisor or your client’s primary health care provider. 

For information about documenting your clinical experience, click here.