Lactation Program Review:
UCSD Lactation Educator Counselor Training Program
with Lactation Educator Counselor Certificate
By Anonymous
October 19, 2015
How long did it take you to complete the program? About 1 month.
When did you take the course? April 2014.
Certification or Certificate Offered – At end of course, students are “Certificated Lactation Educator Counselors,” or CLECs.
Delivery of Program – I did the combination course (online and in-person) but there is an completely online option available as well. You can find dates and the delivery medium here of available classes here and read more about the program here.
Books & Materials Required – The textbook Breastfeeding and Human Lactation by Karen Wambach and Jan Riordan, which costs between $115-144 on Amazon right now.
Cost of Program (Including books, materials, application fees, etc.) – $625 (for course) + $115-144 (book) = $740-$769 total.
# of L-CERPs, Nursing Contact Hours, CEUs, CPEs, etc. offered – 45 L-CERPs, 4 CE units in Reproductive Medicine BRN/RD: 45 CE hrs. BRN
Do this program’s hours meet partial or full requirements for the IBCLC exam’s lactation specific training requirement?
Yes – partially (45 hours).
If yes, how many hours of lactation specific training are counted for the IBCLC exam?
45 hours are counted towards the 90 hour lactation education IBCLC exam requirement.
Trainer: Ginni Baker
What did you like about the program?
- Gini Baker is amazing! Great public speaker, amazing stories she brought to the course.
- I highly recommend the combination course-both in person and online certification.
What did you dislike about the program? That I didn’t find it sooner!
What would you change about the program? More courses offered in the Bay Area.
How rigorous/time consuming did you find the program?
If you are organized both at work and at home, you can do this. The homework requires a minimum of 1-2 hours of quiet time to work per session.
Would you recommend this program to others?
Yes. Because it’s real talk. And lastly, to me personally, the name of University California San Diego Extension sounds more professional.
Knowing what you know now, would you take this program again? Absolutely!
Do you feel the course and/or certification helped you obtain your goals?
Yes. It helped me to get a job with WIC. In my case, it helped me obtain more credentials as a postpartum doula. The certification is beneficial to doulas as well.
Does your program/credential require you to recertify? If so, how long does the credential last and what is required to recertify?
The “Certified Lactation Educator Counselor” certificate is good for 5 years, after which, one needs to take the “Refresher Lactation Educator” course.
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.
See here for more program details along with comparison of similar Lactation Training Programs.
Galactablog 
Good morning, just saw the new review on Galacta blog. As always, I appreciate the work you do. I was wondering if you could edit it to reflect more accuracy. Since the writer specifically mentioned cappa, and our prices are transparent, the information she shared is not correct. For cappa certification, the course is 400, the online portion is $175, membership is $55, and the hug your baby program is $35. I’m not sure why the author stated it was much less expensive than cappa. I really like gini and the San Diego program, but II know you want to share the correct information. I don’t think enough people have probably seen it yet to have to write a correction, but this could affect people’s opinion of another program. Sorry for the format of this email I’m on my phone and wanted to contact you as soon as possible. Thanks so much.
Happy Connecting. Sent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S® 5
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Dear Christy,
Thank you so much for your comment. I’ve deleted the comment about CAPPA as you’re right, once books and misc. are added, it’s approximately the same price. Sometimes students have taken courses a few years ago and this can affect the prices they note in their review, as can book requirements. I know that when I took the UCSD course, they used a different book that was much cheaper. I always try to ensure there is updated information in the posts and reviews.
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