Debi - thanks for your concern for us.  It depends how many need mentoring!
We have tried really hard to promote the exam here, offered time, help,
homes as libraries, but offers were not taken up as fully as we expected by
the l994 candidates.  I too, did not have a mentor, and was advised to
increase my contact hours as an LLL Leader, which I managed to do by
offering to see every single mother who contacted me and doing exhaustive
follow-ups - easy as a volunteer I found.  My personal belief is that there
is absolutely no substitute for observation. Telephone counselling won't do
and I am not sure how much face-to-face contact is encouraged in LLL groups
- certainly I was never "encouraged" to do this, but it was a revelation
when I started doing it. I was also fortunate to have a little network of
knowledgeable and experienced doctors, paediatrician, other LLL people etc
to mentor me (not IBCLCs, but good with breastfeeding).  I was (still am!) a
total pest about asking for help/info with unfamiliar situations. What
amazes me is that we are getting reports about candidates passing the exam
without the "right" kind of experience - I don't think you can "fudge" an
exam at this level of difficulty.  The nice thing about going the LLL route
is that you do have the opportunity to work with all kinds of mothers, with
all ages of babies/children - the experience can be very wide, and you also
have the good fortune to be able to follow the mothers and babies' progress
for months and sometimes years.

Having not had an official "mentor" myself (but a network of support people)
I do feel concerned that isolated wanna-be LCs  (like I was) will not be
able to sit the IBLCE exam if this is a requirement in the future.

Pamela, Zimbabwe