At the start of January 2024, Northwest AHEC launched the opening day of the 2024 North Carolina Lactation Educator Training Program, a longstanding initiative dating back to 1996.

The program received a complete refresh in 2023, and we were thrilled to unveil this freshly revamped course. The goal behind the revitalization was to make the course more accessible across the state for healthcare professionals and to meet the growing needs of the breastfeeding community. In the past, participants had to attend multiple in person days of didactic education with a clinical component. Now, participants who register for the program complete an online, self-paced course focused on many different topics such as the basics of breastfeeding, assessment, counseling and communication, positioning, commons problems, returning to the workplace, and multicultural perspectives.

Following the completion of the online course, participants attended a four-hour in-person Skills Day session to apply the information and principles from the online course. This fostered interprofessional collaboration and connected those working in various disciplines and roles with each other. During the Skills Day, participants heard from experts in the field Georganna Cogburn, MSHE, RD, LDN, IBCLC, RLC and Sheila Britt-Smith M.Ed., RD, IBCLC regarding the most up to date evidence-based practices related to breastfeeding and lactation. They utilized case studies and hands-on skills to help participants learn how they could apply their knowledge in their practice. Hannah Edens, MPH, RD, LDN, IBCLC, RLC was essential in the development of the online module related to breastfeeding for late preterm infant.

The online course was developed by Georganna, Sheila, and Alana Dodson, MBA, BSN, RN. We are looking forward to offering this again in the fall of 2024 so be on the lookout for future North Carolina Lactation Educator Training programming.

One participant shared:

“It was very helpful to have self-paced content to do that accommodated my busy work schedule. It was so nice to be able to still have the in-person skills so that I can apply what I have learned.”