My Journey to Becoming an IBCLC

Part 1 of Heather Hutton's Story

On Monday, I posted a comprehensive guide to becoming an IBCLC. Today I am discussing how I became an IBCLC. It was not a linear process and I honestly wasn’t a good IBCLC for a long time after I received those letters behind my name.

It all started when I was a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse. As a brand new baby nurse straight out of college, my very first nursing job was what I believed to be my dream job taking care of sick and premature babies. I quickly recognized that the babies receiving breast milk were more resilient, experienced fewer hospital complications, and seemed to be discharged earlier than the babies fed only artificial baby formula. I also quickly recognized the dedication is took for a NICU mom to be exclusively pumping day in and day out to provide their precious miracles with the absolute best medicine anyone could give them: breast milk.

In this particular NICU, we had an IBCLC lactation consultant who would make daily rounds and create and update the babies’ feeding plans and work with the NICU mothers. One day, the IBCLC happened to be working late and I got to interact with her on my night shift. I excitedly explained to her that I realized the importance of human milk and I was thinking about pursuing a certification and job like hers. I did just as many others have come to me, and I asked, “How should I get started learning more?”

And do you know what her response was?

“Don’t tell anyone I said this, but really the best place to learn about breastfeeding is on the (insert prominent baby formula company who regularly sent a sales representative with free food, free products, and provided free/discounted formula to the hospital here) website! Everything is really nicely laid out and concise and that’s where I would start if I were you.” Or something like that I don’t remember her exact words as this was over 10 years ago.

My heart sank. This IBCLC clearly had compromised ethics and I knew I needed to pursue becoming an IBCLC even that much harder given there are IBCLCs like that out there.