Lakeridge Health Nurse Achieves International Lactation Consultant Designation

As a mother and a Registered Practical Nurse, Shannon Doran has long realized the importance of lactation consultants in helping mothers as they learn to breastfeed their babies. 

“Seven years ago, when I first had my first son, we ran into many challenges throughout our breastfeeding journey and I realized there’s a dire need for lactation consultants in the community,” explained Shannon, who works on the Labour and Delivery and Mother and Baby Units at the Oshawa Hospital and as a postpartum clinical instructor for Durham College first-year nursing students.

These challenges inspired Shannon to pursue the International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) designation. An IBCLC is a specialized member of the health-care team who is trained to facilitate families with their breastfeeding and lactation goals. They also help to prevent, recognize, and solve breastfeeding and lactation difficulties.

The IBCLC certification process is no small feat, requiring years of training, additional health sciences courses, a minimum of 95 hours of lactation specific education, and hundreds of hands-on clinical hours to qualify to write the certification exam.

After years of hard work and endless nights of studying and writing papers, Shannon officially made her dream a reality and completed the IBCLC certification process this spring.

“We are so proud of Shannon,” said Julie Rojas, Director, Women’s and Children’s Program. “Becoming an IBCLC is an arduous process, but Shannon now joins a group of more than 36,000 IBCLCs across 131 countries that are able to provide expert breastfeeding and lactation care. We are very fortunate for the expertise Shannon brings to patient care and our program.”

“This certification impacts my role and responsibilities by giving me the knowledge to adhere to the scope of practice with providing safe, competent, and evidence-based care,” added Shannon. “Achieving this certification still feels surreal. It is so rewarding to know that all of my hard work has paid off.”