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Back in 2010 I completed the Certified Lactation Counselor training through Healthy Children. I wrote about it on the blog, and a few weeks later I found out via mail that I had passed the test and could indeed call myself a CLC.
In the two years since, I haven't really done much with this certification, besides use those letters after my name for a few short-term consulting projects. I know the limitations of the CLC and I am not going to start a business providing breastfeeding support because I took a week-long training program. But I also do like being able to say I have a credential.
So do I bother to complete the continuing education requirements in order to recertify? I only need 18 hours and I have ten months to get it done. There are a few options for doing it online, like through Lactation Education Resources, which has a ton of classes that sound interesting, like The Politics of Breastfeeding. There are also classes I can do at my own pace through Healthy Children's Learn at Home modules. They have some courses I'd be interested in taking too, like Concerns about Infant Formula and The Role of Donor Milk in the Reduction of Infant Mortality and Morbidity.
But this don't come cheap. I've already invested about $600 to take the CLC course and recertifying isn't free either. All of those courses cost money and are worth varying amounts of contact hours. The cheapest I can do this for is about $265, and that's if I get in on the early bird special for recertification.
Is anyone else in the same boat as me? Is it worth keeping a credential I may or may not use for the next three years? Since I'm already in so deep, do I continue to spend a few hundred bucks every few years in order to call myself a CLC? What would you do?
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