Ethyl,  I too am in the process of starting my journey to becoming an LC.  I 
am also hoping that this will lead to a full time career change.

I have gained my lactation experience two ways.  First of all, I nursed my first 
son until 18 months of age and my second son until 3 years 4 months.

I became involved in my local La Leche League group.  After attending a series 
of meetings (4 meetings) you can apply to start the training process to be a 
leader (peer councellor).  The training process involves lots of reading, writing, 
and learning from more experienced leaders how to support other mothers with 
breastfeeding their babies.  The training process is self-directed and can take 
anywhere from about 6 months to 18 months depending on the time you have 
to spend on the reading etc.

As a La Leche League leader you get credited with 500 helping hours for every 
year as an accredited leader, so after 2 years you would have enough hours 
to meet the IBCLE's requirement for in person helping experience.

I have taken some on-line lactation specific training through e-health 
learning.  If you go to the website for IBCLE they have a list of accredited 
programs from many institutions that you can take on line.

I have purchased several textbooks, most of which I read recommendations 
for on lactnet.  If you search the archives you can put together quite an 
extensive wish list of books that would be useful.

My goal is to start my own business seeing women in the evenings and on 
weekends.  My husband is only working part time right now, but we hope that 
by the time I am ready to really take off with my business he will have found 
full time work in his field.

I am also aiming to write the exam next year in 2010.

Tania LLLL  Ontario, Canada

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