Lactation Program Review: 

UCSD Lactation Educator Counselor Training Program 

with Lactation Educator Counselor Certificate  

By Anonymous

Review Submitted December 1, 2017
Published on December 13, 2017

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

When did you take the course? 2014

Certification or Certificate Offered – At end of course, students are “Certificated Lactation Educator Counselors,” or CLECs.

Delivery of Program – Completely online. 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, Counseling the Nursing Mother: A Lactation Consultant’s Guide by Anna Swisher and Judith Lauwers (2015). It’s available to rent, to buy (in both hard cover and Kindle) on Amazon.

Cost of Program (Including books, materials, application fees, etc.) – $695 (as of December 2017) + $72 for book via Amazon.com= $767 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? I liked having videos to watch rather than simply PowerPoint slides with voiceover. It’s hard to do that for 45 hours’ worth of education! The price is also more reasonable than other courses.

What did you dislike about the program? Virtually everything else.

What would you change about the program? I’d update the videos, ensure that everything is based on evidence or clearly stated as anecdotal, and ensure that it is inclusive and appropriate for a wide audience.

How rigorous/time consuming did you find the program? The program was more intense than what I have seen from in-person 45-hour courses. There were lectures plus assignments, including a fairly involved assignment where you create your own breastfeeding class.

Would you recommend this program to others?  I can only speak for the online portion, but no, I would not recommend it to others based on my experience. I felt like communication was poor; there was one instance where I asked specifically about a contradiction between the lecture and assignment and was not given a clarifying answer. The lectures videos were outdated when I watched them. There were some points where language used was offensive, and anecdotal evidence offered as fact without clarification that was anecdotal.

Knowing what you know now, would you take this program again? No. I would try to find an in-person class if at all possible.

Do you feel the course and/or certification helped you obtain your goals? No. I took the course mainly as a prerequisite to apply for the Hybrid Lactation Program (UCSD’s pathway 2 program), and found out after going through the course and applying that any 45-hour course would have counted for a prerequisite, and I was a CLC at the time.

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.