Laura Aldag asked if anyone had sat and passed the IBLCE exam without
attending any formal courses. I am one. In Australia there are few
available courses, although there are now more than when I sat the exam in
1991. All of the people I did the exam with here in Western Australia
passed after just private study. We did get together as a "study group" a
few times to sort out what we needed to learn, and we had help from Maureen
Minchin's lists of books and articles that were relevant. It was
interesting that those of us with Nursing Mothers' Counsellor backgrounds,
like me, had to concentrate our study on quite different areas to those
with nursing/midwifery/child health backgrounds. We were able to tailor our
study to our weaker areas, which in some ways may be an advantage over a
course that covers everything. So I would say to your breastfeeding
counsellor, go for it!

Joy Anderson IBCLC & NMAA Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia

I had this message written and queued for sending, and then read a post
from Ilene Fabisch about this topic. I too was a medical technologist,
before kids, and had been a NMAA Breastfeeding Counsellor for 5 years when
I sat the exam. So, none of you are out of your minds!

Joy