my name is sheila meserschmidt and i am thedirector of climb for health professionals. and i would like to introduce to you today,dixie whetsell, the lead instructor for our lactation managementprogram. can you tell me about your academic backgroundand work experience that's led you to become and internationalboard certified lactation consultant? well, i obtained my masters degree in communityhealth education and worked as a community health educatorfor a county health department. and during that experience, what i noticedis that there were a lot of breastfeeding families we were serving inour county health department and work program
that were having problems sometimes or justneeded general support, and we weren't able to offer that. there wasno lactation consultant available to them. so that led me to seek further training inlactation consulting, and to get clinical experience as well, andthen i was qualified to take the certification exam, and became certified. i’ve been working with breastfeeding familiesfor about 20 years now and have been able to work in the community,as well as an acute care setting at a high risk maternal and pediatric center. could you summarize the segments that studentswill take
toward their ibcle certification? we’lllook at basic requirements that the international board of lactationconsultant examiners require for certification. thoserequirements begin with general education in the health sciences, just like many otherhealth professionals. these will include a number of courses that we'll talk aboutin a second. the second step in the process is to obtainbasic education courses in human lactation. and that's part of what pcc offers. pcc isa great resource for education for becoming a lactation consultant becauseit offers education in both of these areas. finally, you have to obtain clinical practice
experience with direct hands on services forbreastfeeding families, as well as educating these families with supportvia phone, email or in person. after you’ve met these requirements youare qualified to sit and pass the certification exam, andthen re-certify on a regular basis. what are the most frequently asked questionsthat students have regarding this program? there are 2 questions that i get from studentsfrequently. the most common question is “don’t you have to be a nurse?†thisis a misconception, and no, you do not have to be a nurse. however, as you see from the information aboutthe general education requirements,
you have to have the same kind of trainingthat many health care professionals do. so training college education in biology,anatomy and physiology, etc. so, no, you do not need to be a nurse, butyou do have to have the same type of training. whether it's college education, as well as,there are some continuing education courses such as cpr and medical terminology that willthen prepare you to do the work that you need to do. the second question i get is “then how toi become a lactation consultant?†and so we've talked about the steps in theprocess. college education in the health sciences, continuing education appropriate for healthprofessionals, lactation training,
experience and then certification. lastly,what words would you offer students to ensure this field is the right decisionfor them? the thing that's very exciting about providinglactation management at pcc is that we are providing top level trainingat this point. our 90 hour lactation management course iscertified, or approved by the accreditation and approval review committee that sets the standard for lactation managementeducation. just this year, a very exciting thing happened. the us surgeon general, in january, put outa call to action to support breast feeding.
and in that call to action, which is quitean extensive report about breastfeeding in our nation, as well as in our state, she talked about us really needing to workto increase our breastfeeding rates, and lactation consultants help in that process. and so she outlined in her report that infact across the us we need 4 times the number of lactation consultants than thereare working, and in oregon we need at least twice as many. not only the surgeon general, but also thejoint commission which accredits hospitals, and the center for disease control are lookingclosely at
what kind of breastfeeding support serviceswe should be providing. an important part of that is increasing howmany lactation consultants that are available. now, here are the resources if want more informationabout our program, and we are really excited to hear from youif you'd like more information. i encourage you to take a thorough look atthe website. it holds much information for you. if yourquestions still aren't answered after you've reviewed that material, pleasecall our office at 971-722-2798, and we look forward to having you in class!
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