CLC, CLE, CLEC, IBCLC....OMG!! What does it all mean?

Let's face it, when you are sitting in your hospital room with a crying, screaming baby and nipple soreness you really don't care who it is who helps, you just want help! It could be from a mom, a dad (who really just wants to fix things), an auntie, a grandma, a friend, a nurse, a doctor, or someone in the lactation field.

If that kind person who helps you in the hospital or in your home is someone in the lactation field it is important that you stare strong and hard at their badge and their bio and find out what their initials are after their name. These initials are not random and like RN, MD, and APN they mean something quite significant in terms of their scope of practice, education background, and standard of practice.

Lactation Field Defined:

CLC: Certified Lactation Counselor
CLE: Certificated Lactation Educator
CLEC: Cerificated Lactation Educator Counselor

IBCLC: Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant

What is behind the letters?

CLC, CLE, CLEC:
These courses are NOT Board Certified nor are the Advanced Practice Certifications.

CLC: This is a 5 day class. 45 contact hours for CE provided, from flyer looks like 40-45 hours of classroom instruction, no clinical hours, no attendance at breastfeeding class. From the organization that presents CLC it is important to know that they state, "The CLC certification carries no regulatory authority for licensure. All participants should seek information about how this competency verification certification relates to employment in their community." Taken from webiste: http://www.healthychildren.cc/PDFs/4PageFlyer_2013.pdf

It is also important to note that it also states " The Certified Lactation Counselor® Exam is administered by the Academy of Lactation Policy and Practice (ALPP)" which is a division of Healthy Children Project, Inc. which is the presenter of the CLC and defines the CLC. Here is their pamphlet from 2010: http://www.talpp.org/CLC_Candidate_Handbook_2010S.pdf

CLE: 20 hours instruction time; 4 hours clinicals; Info can be found at: CAPPA; There are also course offerred as 45 CEUs (45 hours) through organizations such as this with no clinical component much like the CLC above. BASTYR Education

CLEC: 45 CEUS offered as: 45-60 hours instruction time; 4 hours clinicals; Info can be found at UCSD Lactation Program


IBCLC, RLC:
These are all Board Certified and Advanced Practice Certifications

IBCLC (often represented as RLC on hospital badge): This is an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant.  Your IBCLC can be an RN, MD, OT, Speech Therapist, Dietician, RT, LPN, La Leche League Leader, or just an interested breastfeeding supporter. Their practice as an IBCLC will be greatly influenced by their other experiences, knowledge, and certifications. Which ever path leads one to be an IBCLC, remember they are an Advanced Practice Clinician and are Board Certified in lactation.

Just like your RN, LPN, RT, or MD passed an exam and stringent qualifications that included schooling and clinical experience, so too did your IBCLC! This person's scope of practice, practice, and licensure is maintained by IBLCE (International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners) . This person has a license number that you can verify here: http://americas.iblce.org/ibclc-registry.  IBCLC is defined in this document: http://americas.iblce.org/what-is-an-ibclc. Pathways that your IBCLC followed to qualify to take the examination can be found here: Pathways to Becoming an IBCLC and a great video to watch to learn more can be found here: How to Become a Lactation Consultant  .

IBCLCs, like MDs and other healthcare professionals can apply for an NPI (national patient identifier) so that they may join a panel of health professionals and receive payment for services through health insurance.

To complicate matters further:
Now to complicate things further some programs have added more letters to the IBCLC and have intertwined CLC and IBCLC. For instance the use of ANL and ANLC. Over the past few years there has been a fair amount of controversy surrounding CLCs calling themselves consultants and making their practice equivalent to that of an IBCLC. In these courses this melding of the two is done so that an IBCLC and a CLC  can come out with ANL or ANLC at the end of their name.Healthy Children defends their argument in this document: IBCLC and CLC equal? For commentary on this debate you can turn to some fabulous blogs: Public Health Doula ; Anthro Doula ; Lactation Laura

UGH!! Like you weren't already confused, right?

Personally, I just find the creation of this mess of letters by Healthy Children is just one more way to confuse the issue and complicate the pathway for a mom in pain and desperation to find the correct assistance for her breastfeeding challenges.  As you can see from the basic qualifications required for each certification no matter what you put after your name if it is not IBCLC or RLC then you may be interacting with a professional who has had far less exposure and education on the abnormal and incredibly complex issues that can arise when breastfeeding takes a wrong turn. The definitions are also well stated and laid out in this article: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art63829.asp.

In the end it comes down to two things. 1. Those of us in the lactation field CORRECTLY representing ourselves and making sure a mom (and we) understands out scope of practice. 2. Moms, dads, partners, aunties, friends, sisters, and those who want to help taking the extra few seconds to ask what a persons qualifications are and quickly checking for an IBCLC certification verification online just as you would for any MD visit. (It's just that important!)