Lactation Program Review: 

Health-e Learning’s

BreastEd Lactation Studies Program

Reviewer: Kay Miller

June 5, 2015

Year enrolled in Program: 2014

How long did it take you to complete the program? ~12 hours per course (120 hours total), plus additional time for reading/additional study.

Delivery of Program – Completely online

Certification or Certificate Offered? Certificates are provided after the completion of each of the 10 courses; but there is no “certification” given

Name of Instructor – Various instructors available for questions/discussion.

Books & Materials Required – From the Health-e-Learning site: “All reading material is included in the courses or links to helpful websites are provided. We encourage you to purchase a good quality lactation text and perhaps consider adding a new book to your collection each year.”

Reading resource list for the courses: https://www.health-e-learning.com/en/support/faqs/22/175
(note that there are more updated versions for some of the textbooks on that listing!)

Cost of Program (Including books, materials, application fees, etc.) – $1,250.00 for full 10 courses if purchased at the same time. The cost is $129 per class if you decide to purchase individually (for cost of $1,290)

# of L-CERPs, Nursing Contact Hours, CEUs, CPEs, etc. offered – 120 total CERPS offered (12 per each of the 10 courses). Also offers contact hours via the California Board of Nursing.

Do this program’s hours meet partial or full requirements for the IBCLC exam’s lactation specific training requirement?

Yes, it meets the full 90 hour IBCLC lactation education requirement and goes beyond by offering 120 hours if you take all of the 10 courses. If you take courses individually, you gain 12 hours per course.

What did you like about the program?

• While I do prefer in-person workshops, that just wasn’t an option for me at this time due to financial and scheduling constraints. I appreciated being able to complete this program completely online.
• I liked that I could enter and exit the course freely, and it would save where I left off. This made it easy for me to have the freedom to work in just 15 minute increments when I didn’t have much time, but longer periods when I was able to do so.
• There were facilitators and message boards for each course that the learner could take advantage of for questions and discussion throughout the course.
• I liked the study guides that were provided for each course.
• I liked being able to fully print the courses so I could have a hard copy to highlight and make notes in, as well as use to study when I didn’t have internet access. I can also use those to study with and re-read after my subscription to the courses has expired.
• I appreciated the more “global” perspective, vs just learning the US version of various topics.
• I appreciated the links to various studies and other sources to continue learning on topics discussed in the courses.
• Your access to the courses is cumulative. If you order all 10 courses at once, you get a full year of access. If you need to purchase them individually, you have as many months to access them as the number of courses you purchase.
• If you need more time, purchasing longer access is inexpensive, and applies to all the courses at once.
• There was immediate feedback on the various quizzes and tests in the courses, which helps the learner know areas they need to refresh their knowledge/understanding of.
• The courses had activities sprinkled throughout–quizzes (not for a formal grade), cross word puzzles, matching activities, etc.
• Health-e-Learning admins also send emails at various intervals to check in with the learner and to see if there are questions/concerns.

What did you dislike about the program?

• It was all slides and reading–no video components. I wish they would have some video teaching by various instructors to break it up and keep the learner more interested and engaged.
• I was able to access the courses via my iPad, but not all of the features were supported on it, so I would have to switch over to my laptop to complete those portions or save them for later.
• Also, while I understand that the information in the lactation world is constantly changing and updating and therefore difficult to stay on top of, some of the information in the courses was outdated.

What would you change about the program?

• The things I mentioned above as not liking: add in video components, make it fully accessible via mobile devices, update more frequently so that the information is as current as possible.

How rigorous/time consuming did you find the program?

I am a single mom of two, homeschool my children, and work 2+ jobs of varying hours, and was able to work this program in to my hectic schedule. Because of the flexibility of being able to do short or long periods of time in the program at at time, and it being fully online, I think that this program is very easily incorporated in to a busy life. As with anything, you do have to actually MAKE the time to work on it, sometimes being creative with how you do so.

Would you recommend this program to others? 

Yes, especially to those unable to travel to in-person workshops. I feel that while some information was outdated, much of it was good. It is a great way to complete the required lactation specific hours for the IBLCE exam requirements, and a great learning opportunity even if that is not your ultimate goal.

Knowing what you know now, would you take this program again? 

Yes, I would take this program again. However, I would also like to take other online courses with various components to round out my learning as well.

Do you feel the course and/or certification helped you obtain your goals?

Yes – it provided the education and required hours for the IBLCE exam preparation, in an easy to use and easy to access manner.

Does your program/credential require you to recertify? If so, how long does the credential last and what is required to recertify? N/A – this is not a certification program and there was no credential given.

Would you like to write a review of a Lactation Training Program that you’ve taken? If so, don’t be shy! You can access the review form directly from Galactablog. Or directly online via Google Forms here.

**Disclaimer – The views and opinions expressed in this review are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Galactablog. It’s important to note that these views are not the only source of information about this particular lactation training program.