Certification FAQs

All initial applicants must fulfill these key requirements prior to applying.  All requirements are to be completed within the 5 years immediately prior to applying for the IBCLC examination, except for the Health Science Education, which can be completed at any time prior to applying. 

1. Health Sciences Education
   Refer to the Health Science Education Guide for a list of these subjects and descriptions. Candidates whose profession is listed as a Recognised Health Profession are considered to have fulfilled the health science education requirement. Or, one meets this requirement if one can provide evidence from a governmental authority that recognises the profession as a clinical health profession.
2. Lactation Specific Education
   95 hours of education that covers human lactation or breastfeeding topics, including five hours of education focused on communication skills.
3. Lactation Specific Clinical Experience
   Provide care that supports breastfeeding families, including lactation assistance to pregnant and breastfeeding persons and lactation education to families and/or professionals.
4. Code of Professional Conduct for IBCLCs
   Adhere to, with attestation, the Code of Professional Conduct for IBCLCs.

Please note: starting with examination applications for the April 2021 examination administration and those administrations following, the 95 hours of lactation specific education includes five (5) hours of education focused on communication skills. Preferably, these five hours will be directly related to lactation and breastfeeding care, but this is not a requirement. This change was recommended as communication is a key area in the IBCLC Detailed Content Outline and in practice, as IBCLCs must understand the client and provide the most appropriate plan of care, engage in active listening and emotional support, and assist the client in making informed decisions.

For more detailed information please review our Candidate Information Guide.*

*Please read in conjunction with the June 2022 Updated Interim Guidance on the Use of Technology to Meet Pathways 1, 2, and 3 Clinical Practice Requirements(Reissued on June 30, 2022).

The impact of COVID-19 necessitated changes to the typical process of disseminating IBCLC certificates. We understand that certificates are important to many of you, and we work to provide them in alignment with current health guidelines. Please check the Examination Resource Centre for updates about when certificates will be sent by post.

For those who recently became certified or recertified, there are other options to verify your certification status now, including:

• Logging into your online account and see your status under “My Credentials.” You can find directions to access your account here.
• Submitting a Certification Verification Form so we can provide your certification status to whomever you authorise.
• Searching by IBCLC Credential Number (L-#) in the updated Public Registry. 
• Contacting your IBLCE location for a letter verifying your IBCLC certification status that can be provided to third parties.

IBLCE offers only one certification. The International Board Certified Lactation Consultant® (IBCLC®) certification is the only credential currently awarded by IBLCE. The IBCLC is regarded globally as the gold standard in professional lactation care.

If you are able to provide documentation that you are authorised by a governmental authority to practice as a clinical health professional, you will be considered to have fulfilled the Health Sciences Education requirements. Any health care professional from the Recognised Health Professionals list, be it a nurse, doctor, etc. must provide these documents too if audited.

You will provide information on the application about this, as well as if your application is randomly chosen for audit you would need to provide supporting documentation (e.g. copies of transcripts and/or certificates showing that you have a passing grade in each of the 14 health science subjects).  Please note that we reserves the right to audit any candidate application. Review the Health Sciences Education Guide for details.

We look for the course to be provided by an accredited institution. The proof of completion must have the name of the accredited institution on it.

In some cases, with online classes, for a course to be recognised by an accredited institution, the student pays a higher fee and/or meets additional requirements (e.g., a short exam).

If your application is selected for audit, you would need to provide a copy of the certificate(s) of completion for your class(es). Each certificate should show the name of student, course name, passing grade, date of completion, and accredited institution name. Depending on the provider, you may need to complete additional coursework/quizzes to earn the recognition from the accredited institution.

If the online provider itself is accredited, a transcript or certificate from the provider is sufficient. If the course comes from an accredited institution but does not offer official documentation such as a certificate, you will need to demonstrate completion by obtaining another type of official documentation. A screenshot may be sufficient only if there is no other option and if it includes all required information: name of student, course name, passing grade, date of completion, and accredited institution name.

Reviews are not conducted on coursework prior to application submission. You will need to compare your transcript(s) against the course descriptions provided in the Health Sciences Education Guide. Further explanation is provided in the Health Sciences Summary.

Lactation specific education that covers the disciplines and chronological periods listed on the IBCLC Detailed Content Outline may be used to meet the Lactation Specific Education requirements. This education may be offered in the classroom or through distance learning such as online courses and independent study modules.

Please note that self-study is important, but it is not able to be counted toward meeting the required lactation specific education.

The application form will ask you to verify that you have met this requirement. You should retain copies of certificates that prove your attendance at each of the courses you completed, as we do randomly audit applications and reserve the right to audit any candidate application.

Initial examination candidates are expected to have completed 95 hours of lactation specific education, including five hours of education focused on communication skills. If you attend a session that has been awarded CERPs by IBLCE, we will accept only the hours verified as L-CERPs for your lactation education requirement. For the five hours of education focused on communication skills only, the hours could have been assigned L- or R-CERPs.

E-CERPs (Ethics) and R-CERPs (Related) are sessions that are not lactation specific education but are related to the practice of lactation consultants; a course may be helpful to an IBCLC’s practice without being specific to lactation. You will need to find education that focuses on lactation specific aspects (e.g., anatomy for breastfeeding care).

Communications courses taken at university or college are accepted to meet this requirement. Proof that the course was for at minimum five hours will be required in case of audit.

A course cannot be used to meet two different requirements. You will need to decide how you want to use your communications class. If the course is counted towards the 14 health science courses, then you will need to take another class for the communications requirement.

If you are not certain about the education provider’s full range of products or relationship with the WHO Code, you should contact the education provider directly and confirm their compliance with the WHO Code.

The Commission accepts education related to the general disciplines and the chronological periods listed on the IBCLC Detailed Content Outline for certification and recertification.  Should your application be randomly selected for audit, you will need to provide proof of completion of the education from a provider and for that education to count towards certification or recertification, the educational provider cannot be an entity whose products fall within the WHO Code (e.g., infant formula, bottles, and teats).  Proof of this may be required during the audit.  Official documentation or a letter from the educational provider attesting that it is not a company, inclusive of manufacturers, distributors, or marketers, whose products fall within the scope of the World Health Organization (WHO) International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (1981) and subsequent World Health Assembly (WHA) resolutions (e.g., infant formula, bottles, and teats) and expressing support of the WHO Code would suffice. For ease of compliance with this requirement, we encourage WHO Code compliant and WHO Code supportive educational entities to include this information on the Certificate of Attendance provided to learners.

In order to afford a transitional period with respect to this new requirement, education completed prior to January 1, 2022, can be used toward certification and recertification.  Certificates dated January 1, 2022, or later will not count towards IBCLC certification or recertification if the educator is an entity, inclusive of manufacturers, distributors, or marketers, whose products fall within the WHO Code (e.g., infant formula, bottles, and teats).

There are 3 ways that candidates, health care professionals or non-health professionals, can obtain the required clinical practice in lactation and breastfeeding care:

• Pathway 1 – Completing a minimum of 1000 hours of lactation specific clinical practice in an appropriate supervised setting within the 5 years immediately prior to examination application.

OR

• Pathway 2 – Completing an accredited lactation academic programme that includes at least 300 hours of directly supervised lactation specific clinical practice within the 5 years immediately prior to examination application.

OR

• Pathway 3 – Completing a verified Pathway 3 Plan of at least 500 hours of directly supervised lactation specific clinical practice with an IBCLC as described in the Pathway 3 Plan Guide and obtained within the 5 years immediately prior to examination application.

Please note that personal experience breastfeeding your own children and experience helping family members and friends cannot be used to qualify for the IBCLC examination.

• As a breastfeeding support counsellor through a specific Recognised Breastfeeding Support Counsellor Organisation
• Paid or unpaid experience at an appropriate supervised setting (see FAQ #4 below for examples); independent clinical experience does not count

You may want to look at Pathway 2 accredited lactation academic programmes or Pathway 3 mentorship programmes with an IBCLC.

The following health care delivery settings meet this criteria and clinical hours can be earned through paid or volunteer work on an hour-for-hour basis in these settings:

• Hospital
• Birth Centre
• Community Clinic
• Lactation Care Clinic/Practice
• Primary Care Practitioner’s Practice/Office

Clinical experience may include in-person consultations, telephone consultations, or online breastfeeding or lactation care provided through the above settings.

If you are working in an appropriate supervised setting or for a Recognised Breastfeeding Support Counsellor Organisation, you may use your work experience as a breastfeeding peer counsellor to qualify through Pathway 1.

Yes, you may use a combination of experience from different jobs or volunteer positions to qualify through Pathway 1.

The hours that you report will be based upon a good faith estimate that you make about the amount of time you spend providing lactation and breastfeeding care. Keep in mind that should your application be selected for audit; you will need to provide supporting documentation. Please note we reserve the right to audit any candidate application.

Keeping a weekly time log for several weeks can help you determine how many hours, on average, you spend helping breastfeeding families. You may find the Lactation Specific Clinical Practice Calculator found on the IBCLC Information page helpful in calculating your hours.

No. You may not use this experience to qualify through Pathway 1. You must work or volunteer for a Recognised Breastfeeding Support Counsellor Organisation or be at an appropriate supervised setting.

Clinical experience may include in-person consultations, telephone consultations, or online breastfeeding or lactation care in the following scenarios.

• Through an appropriate supervised setting.
• Through work (paid or volunteer) with a Recognised Breastfeeding Support Counsellor Organisation.

Now through September 30, 2024, you may earn clinical practice hours remotely.  Please see IBLCE’s Advisory Opinion on Telehealth (Issued on April 3, 2020) as well as the June 2022 Updated Interim Guidance on the Use of Technology to Meet Pathways 1, 2, and 3 Clinical Practice Requirements (Reissued on June 30, 2022) on the IBLCE website.  Additionally, if you are pursuing IBCLC eligibility via Pathway 3, please see the Pathway 3 Plan Guide (Updated May 9, 2020).

You will need information about the following topics:

• Which pathway you followed — Pathway 1, 2 or 3
• Whether or not, in the past five years, you have completed the required 95 hours of lactation specific education, including five hours of education focused on communication skills
• How you will demonstrate completion of the Health Sciences Education.
• How many hours of clinical practice in lactation and breastfeeding care you have completed in the past five years
  • 1000 supervised hours for Pathway 1
  • 300 directly supervised hours for Pathway 2
  • 500 directly supervised hours for Pathway 3

In addition, you will need to provide personal information such as birth date, country of citizenship, and professional background, and information about examination preferences such as whether you require accommodations during the examination administration and/or where you want to sit the examination. If you require accommodations, you will need third-party documentation that supports the need for accommodations.

Please note: starting with examination applications for the April 2021 examination administration and those administrations following, the 95 hours of lactation specific education includes five (5) hours of education focused on communication skills. Preferably, these five hours will be directly related to lactation and breastfeeding care, but this is not a requirement. This change was recommended as communication is a key area in the IBCLC Detailed Content Outline and in practice, as IBCLCs must understand the client and provide the most appropriate plan of care, engage in active listening and emotional support, and assist the client in making informed decisions.

If you are selected for audit, we will contact you via email. If you have already completed your application and payment for the examination, then there is nothing further you need to do unless you are contacted regarding an audit or other application aspect such as an accommodations request. The deadline for submitting the audit documentation will be different than the application deadline and will be provided via email by staff.

If you are selected for audit, we will contact you via email. The email will ask you to provide documentation as indicated in the following points. You will have 10 business days from the date of the email to provide supporting documentation. If documentation is not received by the provided deadline your application may be denied and 50% of the paid fee will be refunded. The following outlines the documentation that is requested during an audit:

1. Health Sciences – proof (e.g., transcripts) of having completed the Health Sciences Education courses on or before time of the examination application submission. If you are educated in one of the professions on the List of Recognised Health Professions, a copy of your license, diploma, or degree will be sufficient.
 
2. Lactation Specific Education – proof (e.g. certificates of completion) of having completed 95 hours of lactation specific education, including 5 hours focused on communication skills, within the 5 years prior to application submission. For Pathway 2 candidates, a document that provides proof of the completion of the accredited lactation academic programme and the 5 hours of communication skills will be accepted.
 
3. Clinical Experience Hours – complete the Lactation Specific Clinical Practice Calculator. For Pathway 2 candidates, a document that provides proof of the completion of the accredited lactation academic programme will be accepted.

Education or hours completed after the date of your application will not be accepted. All the requirements to be accepted for the examination must be completed before you submit your application.