Having been very isolated myself before I took the exam I sympathise with
this year's candidates who are looking for photos.  I had seen almost none
by the time I took the exam and I had absolutely no idea of what to expect.
Linda raised some good points, about spending time with normal moms and
normal babies so as to be able to identify normal from abnormal (most of the
time LCs are working towards returning the problem to "normal", so we have
to know what that is!).

But I really wanted to respond to Rene, who wrote, "I have been a leader for
7 years and I have seen many mom's and baby dyads, but I have not seen a lot
of problems.  I usually talk to the mom on the phone and work with her from
there, possibly never seeing the problem because by the time the meeting
rolls around the crisis is over."  I was also an LLL Leader.  When I was
accepted as an exam candidate (a full year before I sat the exam) I was
advised to increase my contact hours.  Fortunately I took this advice
seriously, or I wouldn't have this lovely job today.  So when a call came in
I started offering to *see* the mom and baby, and this resulted in masses of
home visits.  Well!  That year was a total eye-opener for me.  I found that
what a mom describes on the phone, and what is actually happening can be two
very different things.  I have a teaching slide (thank you Debi Leslie
Bocar) that says, "there is no substitute for direct observation".  So the
point of this is - if you actually *see* as many moms and babies as you
possibly can, the need for "practise" photos largely falls away - a picture
of, say, an abscess, is recognizable when you have seen one or two in real
life before, likewise a FTT baby, or a tight frenulum.  So my suggestion,
catch those problems that go away before the next meeting, follow them up on
a daily basis until they resolve, each one is a chance to learn, learn, learn.

Pamela Morrison IBCLC, Zimbabwe (who is still learning with every single one!)