To all of my Galactablog subscribers, followers and all of those who submitted lactation program reviews – I want to sincerely apologize for the exceptionally long delay on publishing program reviews. I have a backlog of reviews that were submitted but never published. So I’m playing catch-up now. Galactablog is now up and running again, so stay tuned for lots of reviews. Ready, set, go!

Lactation Program Review: 

Lactation Education Resources’ (LER)

Lactation Consultant Training Program

with Breastfeeding Specialist Certificate 

Reviewer: ECB

Reviewed on December 21, 2015
Published on November 30, 2017

Year enrolled in Program: 2013

How long did it take you to complete the program? 2 months

Certification or Certificate Offered – Breastfeeding Specialist certificate

Delivery of Program – Completely online

Books & Materials Required – The textbook Breastfeeding and Human Lactation, 5th Ed is recommended by LER. Course materials (power point lectures, bibliographies and lectures) are all online.

Cost of Program (Including books, materials, application fees, etc.) – $895 (as of 12/21/2015). ***Edited to add: Current cost (as of review publication date) of the “Lactation Consultant Training Program Enriched” course is $975.

# of L-CERPs, Nursing Contact Hours, CEUs, CPEs, etc. offered – 90 L-CERPs, 90 Nursing Contact Hours and 90 CPE Level II. ***Edited to add: Now the same course, “Lactation Consultant Training Program Enriched” offers – 86 L-CERPs, 4 E-CERPs, 90 Nursing Contact Hours and 90 CPEUs.

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.

What did you like about the program?

• I could set my own schedule while taking the classes. I was able to go back through any of the classes within a year period to refresh before the exam. All of the classes were online, so this worked well between raising children, working and school.
• Prior to sitting the IBLCE exam, I retook the 90 hours in a 10 day period of time. I did not purchase any additional exam packets, etc. I felt that all the material on the IBLCE exam was covered in the 90 hour course. The company allowed me to extend the 12 months for an additional 2 months so I could review prior to exam.
• I’m happy to say that I passed with a decent score and currently have the lovely initials IBCLC behind my name.

What did you dislike about the program?

• A few of the topics were dry, but I don’t think that had anything to do with the educators. Merely the actual topics – they were on the exam, so a necessary evil, in my opinion.

What would you change about the program? N/A

How rigorous/time consuming did you find the program?

As stated before, I was able to finish the first time before my internship in about 2 months. The 2nd round for a refresher before the test was done much quicker.

Would you recommend this program to others?

Absolutely and have done so already. I felt it was a good value for the money and had me completely prepared for the exam.

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

Yes. It was very appropriate and a very well-respected program among IBCLCs I now know professionally.

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

Yes. I was able to sit the exam and pass on the first try.

Does your program/credential require you to recertify? If so, how long does the credential last and what is required to recertify? I have to recertify every 5 years for the IBCLC credential. I can either retake the IBCLE exam or I can take 75 CERPs to recertify.

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 information on LER’s lactation training programs, along with comparison of similar lactation training programs.

**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.