Education at the OBC
The OBC Breastfeeding Medicine Program
Directly supervised clinical hours, monthly mentor meetups, clinical rounds, a midwifery practicum, and parenting meetups, taught by IBCLCs who are meeting Ontario families in clinic every week.
Your Primary IBCLC Mentors are Bethany Heintz, RPN, IBCLC, PMH-C, Amanda Antal, BSc, IBCLC, Ashley Pickett, IBCLC and Hillary Maguire, IBCLC.
Start here
Apply to the OBC Breastfeeding Medicine Program: The Discovery Consult
A sixty-minute virtual Discovery Consult, with your potential IBCLC mentors. Depending on your education goals we may cover what IBLCE is, which mentorship pathway suits you, the prerequisites, the 95+ hours of lactation-specific courses. Some students are ready to discuss clinical training, preparing to sit the exam, and what an internship with the OBC while waiting for your exam results looks like.
We will review your professional goals, your prerequisites and your availability. If you are accepted into the program we finish the hour on tuition payment plans and scheduling your first day as a mentee. It is how you are considered for mentorship, so it is the first step rather than one of several.
500 Hour Clinical Training Mentorship
Your 500 hours, beside somebody who has done them and more.
The program is built for students completing 500 directly supervised clinical hours. The OBC runs office consults, home visits and virtual consults.
500 supervised hours
Directly supervised clinical hours for Pathway 1 and Pathway 3 students.
Mentorship with IBCLCs from a wide variety of backgrounds
You are assigned one primary mentor and work with a group of IBCLCs whose backgrounds include mental health, oral habilitation, rhythmic movements, nursing, parenting, infant sleep education, midwifery, nutrition, dietetics, naturopathic medicine, kinesiology, holistic pharmacy, doula care and La Leche League leadership.
Where the in-person hours are
Some of the mentorship is virtual, and there are highly recommended in-person opportunities for observation and clinical care in Lindsay, Milton, Mississauga, New Liskeard, Niagara, Norfolk, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough and Waterloo, with more being added.
How long it takes
The goal is a deep dive over a year. After 12 months there is an additional fee, and the maximum completion date is 18 months from your start date.
Afterwards
An interview waiting for you.
Graduates of the OBC 500 Hour Clinical Training Mentorship are offered a guaranteed interview with our Teams Committee, where you are considered for an IBCLC position with the OBC. It is optional, and it reflects how confident we are in the people this program produces.
What that job looks like is written out on Join our LC team, terms and all.
500 Hour Clinical Training Mentorship
What tuition costs, before you book.
2026 tuition is $9,300 plus HST. It covers directly supervised clinical training for twelve months.
Tuition may be paid in instalments over 12 or 18 months, case by case. Financing fees apply.
Students who need longer than twelve months for the practical requirements can extend, at an additional fee, up to the 18-month completion date.
Refunds: once clinical training commences, no refunds are granted.
Acceptance happens through the discovery consult. It is a conversation with your potential mentors, not a form.
Monthly Mentor Meetups, virtual
Welcome to the village.
Twelve monthly meetups a year for OBC IBCLC Mentors and Mentees together, so a cohort has a room full of mentors rather than one supervisor and a logbook. Bring client cases, course content and the questions about becoming an IBCLC that do not fit anywhere else. Your mentors support you at every stage, from first steps to final stretch, exam preparation included.
Meetups are included for students in the 500 Hour Clinical Training Mentorship, and are also available on their own as the Annual Student Support Membership ($600+HST) — twelve monthly virtual student IBCLC mentor meetups for anyone working towards the credential elsewhere.
MEP Students — Midwifery Student Lactation Practicum
A practicum with far-reaching impact.
Midwifery Education Program students spend the practicum with our IBCLC preceptors — virtually, in the office, and on home visits with consenting families. You will learn to identify and respond to the lactation risk factors birthing parents meet prenatally, through birth, in the fourth trimester and beyond, and you can use it the week after you learn it.
To arrange a practicum, write to the Education Department at admin@ontariobreastfeedingclinic.ca.
Clinical Rounds
Breastfeeding medicine, the latest from Ontario and beyond.
OBC physicians and IBCLCs discuss the latest in lactation with the people who send us families, four times a year. It is on Zoom, it is at no cost, and it is for referring providers, including public health nurses, allied care providers, IBCLCs, peer supporters and MEP students who refer to us too. Bring your own students.
Not becoming an IBCLC
Already in practice, and ready for deeper dive on feeding?
Nurses, physicians, midwives, dentists, bodyworkers, doulas, peer supporters, dietitians and naturopaths all meet feeding problems without having been taught to recognize them. The OBC Breastfeeding Medicine Program will teach you to identify and respond to lactation risk factors prenatally, through birth, in the fourth trimester and beyond, and you can use it the week after you learn it.
Parenting Meetups
A place to learn about breastfeeding, close to home.
Breastfeeding education and peer support. A room, an IBCLC, and other parents at the same stage as you.
We are setting these up now and looking for rooms in the places families already go. If you would like one near you, or you have somewhere we could use, tell us where you are.
Does your community have enough of us?
Most do not. Book the hour, find out where you stand, and we will tell you honestly what the road looks like from there.
Education Department, Ontario Breastfeeding Clinic — admin@ontariobreastfeedingclinic.ca
