What is the difference between the different titles, Lactation Specialist, Lactation Counselor, Lactation Educator, Lactation Educator Counselor?
Lactation is currently a 3 part profession: • Lactation Specialists, 18 hour Programs Usually meets the educational requirements for the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) Usually 16-20 hours in length General audience is health professionals such as nurses • Lactation Educator, Lactation Educator Counselor, Lactation Counselor Usually about the same content from program to program, title to title and each individual sponsoring agency calls the program what they want to call it. UCSD only recognizes programs with minimum 45 hours of classroom time. General audience is individuals desiring to teach Lactation classes and/or continue to the clinical level of lactation consultant. • Lactation Consultant Lactation Consultant Training Program is offered by UCSD. Graduates of the program are “Lactation Interns” until they have enough clinical hours to meet the requirements for one of the pathways of the IBLCE. It is the intent of the UCSD lactation consultant training program that all U
