You were clear in the recent Member Survey: you want and need quality, accessible continuing education.

International Board Certified Lactation Consultants® (IBCLCs®) are required to recertify every five years and are expected to be up-to-date on the latest in evidence-based lactation care.

Get the CERPs you need in the format that works best for you.

To help our members meet this need, the International Lactation Consultant Association® offers many ways members can obtain Continuing Education Recognition Points (CERPs), including: our annual conference, live webinars, recordings of conference and webinar sessions, and learning modules from the Journal of Human Lactation (JHL).

While the conference and webinars are live, you can also access a selection of our recorded content and the JHL modules at your convenience on the CERPs on Demand portal.

2015 members: earn your free CERPs here

Beginning 1 January 2015, members will be eligible to earn up to 10 free CERPs per year. The list of free CERPs was developed from ILCA’s online bank at the CERPs on Demand portal so that you can complete the CERPs at the time that best meets your needs.

This list was specifically chosen to provide content on a variety of issues that impact the IBCLC community worldwide. We also chose a variety of session types, including conference presentations, webinars, and JHL study modules. The offerings, all of which will be active for the entire 2015 calendar year, include:

Breastfeeding Education for NICU Staff (1 CERP): This session, presented by Anita Moorhead, RN, RM, IBCLC; Annette Auld, IBCLC, RN; and Judith Russell, RN, RM, IBCLC, is a great overview of the implementation of a breastfeeding educational program in the NICU. It also reviews the successes and challenges of providing breastfeeding support to NICU mothers by educating staff. It also raises concern about the need for breastfeeding benchmarks in the NICU.

Vulnerable Population Groups (1 CERP): This presentation, by Kirstin Lock, IBCLC, BSN, CMC, looks at the use of group perinatal care in vulnerable populations. Populations addressed include obese and young mothers, as well as the Chinese, Arabic and the Aborigine populations. It includes a description of the presenter’s local hospital statistics on breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding results and how the programs impacted those rates in the vulnerable populations they were serving.

Breastfeeding the High-Risk Infant (1 CERP): This thought-provoking session offers both a historical perspective and day-to-day challenges faced by members of the neonate’s health care team and is presented by Shakira Lita Ismay Henderson, MPH, RNC-NIC, IBCLC. It reviews common barriers to breastfeeding, benefits of breastfeeding for these infants. In addition, Henderson presents practical strategies and approaches to encourage breastfeeding the high-risk infant. It offers practical ways to speak the language of the NICU team and evidence based practices to back-up interventions that address their concerns.

Racial Disparities in Infant Mortality, Breastfeeding, and Sleep (1.5 CERPs): This presentation, by Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, Ph.D., IBCLC, FAPA, highlights the disparities in infant mortality for ethnic-minority populations as well as identifies the physiological effects of discrimination on women’s health in general and during pregnancy. The session also explores current policies on bedsharing, unsafe sleep, and breastfeeding rates and the impact they have on infant mortality within these populations.

Milk Sharing: Comparative Risks and Biomedical Ethics (1 CERPs): Dr. Karleen Gribble presents on one of the hottest topics in our field: peer-to-peer milk sharing. Participants in this session will be able to describe the types of risks associated with milk sharing as well as the risks of formula feeding. Mitigation of these risks is also discussed along with the principles of biomedical ethics as they apply to peer-to-peer milk sharing.

Determinants of 6-Month Maternal Satisfaction (1.5 CERPs): This JHL Study Module focuses on the paper by José Labarère, MD, et. al, exploring maternal breastfeeding satisfaction. Although a personally defined experience, successful breastfeeding is usually measured with regard to duration. This study investigated the determinants of maternal satisfaction with breastfeeding experience for 907 mothers enrolled in a prospective cohort study. Eliciting the mother’s expectations regarding breastfeeding duration may help the lactation consultant in providing appropriate guidance.

Maternal Request for In-Hospital Supplementation (1 CERP): Written by Katie DaMota, MAS, IBCLC, et. al, this paper, and accompanying JHL Study Module, seeks to understand the facilitating factors and decision-making processes surrounding maternal request for formula in the early postpartum period. It explores the impact of a lack of preparation, prenatally, for breastfeeding and advocates for interventions to address mothers’ real and perceived barriers.

Ultrasound Imaging of Infant Sucking Dynamics (1 CERP): This paper, written by Vanessa S. Sakalidis, BHlth Sc (Hons), et. al, explores the dynamic process of breastfeeding. Nipple diameters, tongue movement, nipple position, and suck rate were measured during nutritive sucking and non-nutritive sucking from ultrasound scans of the intra-oral cavity during breastfeeding. Milk intake and LATCH scores were also recorded.

Help us choose the final CERP!

We’ve heard your desire to have a say in ILCA decisions that directly impact you and we are giving you the opportunity! We’ve chosen 9 units of CERP offerings and we need YOU to help choose the final one. You can vote in the poll below, which will be open until 23 October 2014. The CERP with the most votes will be added to the final list and become available as a free CERP for members on 1 January 2015. Your choices are:

Plugging In: Listening to the Needs of Mothers: This session is the first of a 4-part series, presented by Cathy Carothers, entitled “Making the Connection: Counseling and Communication Workshop.” It takes an interactive approach to assisting mothers with their infant feeding decisions through the concept of “connection before content.” Communication strategies include rapport-building techniques, emotional triggers that enhance effective and powerful relationship-building with new families, and ways to create a safe environment for women to receive and act on educational messages.  The evidence-based communication principles are so effective they can be used not only with new mothers/clients, but also with difficult co-workers, and even your family! Members will have the opportunity to purchase the 3 additional sessions.

Today’s Mothers are All Thumbs: Cultural Competency for Digital Motherhood: It is no surprise that communication styles have changed drastically over the past years, moving from print media, TV, and discussions among friends to Facebook, podcasts, and blogs.  The mothers we support are HIGHLY engaged online and often seek their health information, including breastfeeding information, from web sources before their health care providers. This presentation, by Amber McCann and Jeanette McCulloch, will identify characteristics of mothers of the “Millennial Generation” and their methods of communications as well as help us to understand the basics of popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. This is the first of a four-session series. The remaining sessions of the series will be available for purchase.

Previous Breastfeeding Difficulty: Supporting the Multiparous Woman to Successfully Breastfeed: With Cynthia Peterson, RM, C&FHN, IBCLC, this session explores how to provide support and guidance to families who have had previous breastfeeding difficulties. This can include exploring their previous experience as well as providing counseling support and referrals.

UPDATE!

Our poll is now closed and you OVERWHELMINGLY choose Cynthia Peterson’s Previous Breastfeeding Difficulty: Supporting the Multiparous Woman to Successfully Breastfeed to be added to our list of FREE available CERPs for 2015 ILCA Members. Thank you for taking part and we appreciate all of your votes!

We truly believe that this new benefit will have a significant impact on our field by equipping and educating IBCLCs all over the world. We’ve heard positive feedback from you already and look forward to hearing how you put the things you learn from these sessions into practice. Join or renew now so that you won’t miss out on this incredibly opportunity.

Fine Print: While we understand that we are offering sessions that have been previously available to ILCA members, we will not be making any substitutions to this list. If you previously purchased an included session, no refunds will be given or substitutions made. We are providing this benefit to all members (with the exception of short-term trial members). All sessions must be completed by 31 December 2015 to receive the free benefit.