Likewise, I came into this thru LLL. I became a Leader in 1973 and was active until 1984 or so when I returned to school to earn my BA. Graduated in 1988 and re-upped in LLL. Had to study a lot to catch up with immense changes in knowledge during that time. Discovered I qualified to sit the exam - it was not on my horizon until a friend pointed that out to me. 

For all those LLL years, our work was on record at LLLI and the Leaders always reviewed how best to help the mothers in their groups, and read the latest books and texts to come out and discussed them among ourselves. I also worked part time for 4 years (1978-1982) at a local hospital, the same one I'm in now, as part of a colleague's Master's Thesis project in Adult Education, with the blessing of the co-Chairmen of Pediatrics. It was the first on-staff breastfeeding education program in our state. These two doctors were delightfully active and vocal advocates for patient and staff education. 

Three of us formed an exam study group: an RN, me, the 'ordinary' LLL, and my co-leader, lovingly dubbed the SuperAchiever. We all passed our first exam in 1993. We had also joined the local ILCA Affiliate to learn from the pro's who preceeded us. There was maybe one formal education / training program available at the time that I can remember: Chele Marmet's in Calif. There were no other mentoring programs or universally available supervised education track. 

We attended ILCA, LLLI, and every "traveling show" we could find. The Board granted 500 clinic hours for every year of active Group Leadership. And I could add on my time at the hospital, working for free, then for wages, on the strength of my knowledge thru LLL!

Phyllis

--
Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC, RLC
Glendale, AZ.
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