What should be the education qualification of a lactation consultant?

In the mid of 1980’s. IBCLCEs (International Board of Certified Lactation Consultants Examiners) to declare and verify those who want to be converted into Lactation consultants developed an international exam (IBCLC) International board of certified lactation consultant. students from various backgrounds, like those who are professionals in health department and those who have degrees in department of physical therapy, social work, psychology, development in child field speech, and anthropology etc.

Certain levels of qualification needed:

o    College Prerequisites: To qualify for the certification exam, it is necessary to have a secondary degree with subjects in nutrition, physiology, psychology, sociology, child development courses and other courses in anatomy.

o    Lactation Management course: After qualifying certification exam , one can go through instruction management course. It should be learnt within three years, before the year to appear in the exam. There are lists of courses in AARC (The Accreditation and Approval Review Committee) in list of subjects Providers, which are approved by AARC. You can also take help from the, Lactation Course lists provided in ILCA’s website.

o    Clinical Experiences: Third step is to have practical clinical experience of breast feeding mothers. It depends on the majors and minors, that how much experience, you should have in this. According to your choice of pathways, you chose, some hours are needed for clinical supervision also.  It is recommended to be in touch with IBLCE website, for requirements and eligibility criteria, as it is changeable.

o    Continuing Education:  To prepare for this profession, you should attend different conferences and meetings, and it also requires lots of self study, to stay in touch with recent research in the field of human Lactation heath care.  To visit conferences are valuable opportunity, to be in touch with the network of Lactation consultants, will provide a motivation and advice in this career.

What are the roles of a lactation consultant?

Since, this is a specialty of health and care services, this work of Lactation Consultant, had to be done with proper certification and education. Lactation consultant is expected to assist parents especially mother, regarding lactation services, healthcare and other psychological references.

A lactation Consultant is familiar, with the requirements of mother and child, during this period of breastfeeding, after child birth.  A lactation Consultant is well known with the responsibility to maintain hospital- costumer relationships. She should be a internal messenger of hospital, when a problem is faced by a patient. She should be able to solve problems of patients and satisfy them.

Lactation consultant had certain responsibilities and roles, when a patient is under his supervision.

• Responsibility to deal with lactation difficulties. She can give classes, to expecting mothers and guide her to take proper diet before and after child birth.
• To conduct a regular check on pregnancy reports, to avoid problems later on.
• To plan proper health care and activities for mothers and her newly born child.
• Instruct the patient and explain her importance of regular checkup, and other procedures of taking, and canceling appointments.
• To provide support and resources to the patient and guide the charged nurse, by reviewing her work on regular basis.
• To discuss with physicians, doctors and other healthcare providers, about the lactation problems, faced by he patients.
• To participate, in varieties of conferences, and in the communicational programs held for discussing heath care of expecting mothers and newly born infant .
• To maintain records of patients and to check other billing related calculations.
• To be confidential, safe and responsible in handling, the medical records of each patient.
• To plan and organize, meetings for woman and child heath care services.
• To be patience, soft and nice, while talking to parents about various issues related to healthcare.
• To provide various references of experienced mothers, and other experts, to the patient, whenever she needs.

Lactation Consultant is a new profession in the field of heath and care department. It was started in the mid of 1980’s.  They are the specialists and professional experts of human breastfeeding and lactation. Several women’s are comfortable in breastfeeding, many others need take help from there elders in there family.

Motive of Breast feeding is for a mother and baby to work smoothly like a team, in helping to provide him a,  primary source of nutrition as it is a natural and healthy why to nourish and nurture your baby.

Breast feeding is not only good for the development of oral cavity of the infant, but it helps in building a bonding between a mother and a child. Breastfed children’s have early relationships with their mothers as well. It results in a strong bonding with a child, deep lasting after the birth, bonding which encourage mothers to respond quickly to the hunger cries of the baby. In comparison to those who delay, because of heating and preparing a bottle.

Due to the increase in artificial infant feeding, women’s today are facing problems and difficulty in breastfeeding. Lactation consultants basically are the counselors and they help these mothers in understanding the methodology of breastfeeding, they help mothers suffering from latching problems, low mill production, and other expert’s advice.

Numbers of responsibilities arises, when a baby is born. Every mother try hard  to be prepare before, the sequence of responsibilities , she will be going to face, but practically saying ,  it doesn’t matter how many books and magazines you read on breastfeeding, there is no guarantee that you will not face any problem when the time will come. So as it is commonly said, “Precautions better then Cure” . In the same way, you should take help and advice from lactation consultant, before it is too late.

The salary of a lactation consultant

Average Lactation Consultant, can earn near about $ 51,000 per year. It also depends on the company and industry a Lactation consultant chooses as a professional career. A persons ability, and energy level to work vary so as there salary. More they work, more they are paid. Lactation Consultant if working in a hospital or in a heath care, mostly get other incentives and benefits, they are normally paid on an hourly basis. They can either work on part time or full time basis.

Other static’s, according to the latest survey.

There are certain benefits and paid sick leave, which is given to lactation consultant. So overall income of lactation consultant will reach to $70,000 per year. There is certain retirement plan of 400,000 which is sponsored by many of the employers.

Advance career options:-

Lactation Consultant is a profession where people have entered from various backgrounds, for those who have done there maternal/ child services can do specialization as Lactation Consultants. Many people who are nutritionists and dietitians, moves and choose to become a Lactation Consultants, other people choose there careers as lay counselors and then do specialization in it.

Still many people from various backgrounds are entering in this field of lactation Consultant. There are several advance fields for the scope of Lactation consultant. Theses are:-

1.    IN HOSPITALS: Numbers of people work in hospitals as a Lactation consultants , Lactation Consultant job , is to check , if any mother is facing any difficulty in breast feeding. Although it is staff nurse, who help every mother to breastfeed her child. And to make sure, everyone is breastfeeding before they are discharged from the hospital. In hospital, there are certain benefits of working in hospitals, for example flexibility in working timings.  Having large no of employees, provide benefits to work with more moral support and references. Being a specialist in breastfeeding, you may face some difficulties, because of unfriendly staff members.

2.    IN HEATH CLINICS: In heath clinics, there are many opportunities, to counsel mothers and other colleagues and health care members and give classes to them. There are various different opportunities, while working in public heath care clinics. For that, you had to be changeable and adaptable, accordingly. To work in heath care clinics, one must value other’s culture and socio economic norms.

3.    IN A PHYSICIAN GROUP: If you wants to work with a group of physicians, you had to be specifically, prepare the list of services, you can provide to there clients. They will provide you with a device that could be a phone or pager or anything, to be in direct contact with there client, and you had show up, when any of them needs you. There is no specific timing, for your services, which you will provide to there clients.

4.    IN HOME HEATH CARE DEPARTMENT: This is a special home care service, which is provided, after the delivery of the child. There are various agencies, which provide these services. Conditions of home care, fees and time duration, may vary in different agencies. But normally duration of visit for a mother is 45 min. Many hospitals contact, these agencies, to provide home care facility to there patients.

5.    AS A PRIVATE LACTATION CONSULTANT: To be a Private Lactation consultant, one must be well experienced, in this field, and must have knowledge of business and management studies.

To work as a private Lactation consultant, there are certain things, which should be enlightened, these are as follows:-

• Business Structure and Management
• Choosing a perfect , Office location
• Advertising your business.
• Financial issues
• References and link building
• Documentation and paper work
• Satisfaction of clients and taking there feedback