Community Lactation Consultants of Ontario
Find an IBCLC in your community.
International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) work in communities across Ontario.
When to get help
Breastfeeding shouldn’t hurt.
A little tenderness in the first few days can happen. Pain that lasts or gets worse isn’t something you have to push through. Contact one of us if:
- feeding hurts, or your baby can’t get a deep latch
- somebody has mentioned tongue tie, or you are wondering about it
- you are worried about your milk supply, or about your baby gaining
- pumping or bottles aren’t going the way you hoped
- your baby feeds all the time, or is hard to settle
- you’ve started dreading the next feed
Who is who
Lots of people are here to help.
IBCLCs work alongside all of them. Each has its own focus, so it’s good to know who’s who.
- Hospital IBCLCs. Our colleagues in hospital support you after birth. Some hospitals keep helping for a few weeks after you go home and some can’t, so it’s worth asking yours. Once your baby ages out of their care, they’ll often refer you to a community IBCLC for ongoing support.
- Midwives. Ontario midwives care for you and your baby through pregnancy, birth and the first six weeks, feeding included. No referral needed: contact your local midwives early to get on their waitlist for care. When feeding needs a closer look, or once their care ends, they’ll often refer you to a community IBCLC.
- Public health nurses. Ontario’s public health teams carry a remarkable load. Under the Ontario Public Health Standards, they protect whole communities through immunization, disease control, safe food and water, and emergency response, and they support families through school and oral health, injury and substance use prevention, and free breastfeeding help by home visit, phone and clinic. When a feeding concern needs more time than that schedule allows, a community IBCLC can take it from there. We’re proud to work alongside them.
- Clinic-based breastfeeding care. Some breastfeeding clinics are led by a doctor; others belong to an Ontario Health Team or a community health centre and are led by a nurse practitioner, a midwife or a team. Either way they handle the medical side: they can diagnose, prescribe, and treat things like infections or tongue-tie. Visits usually need a referral and focus on the medical question. A community IBCLC can spend longer with you, at home if you like, on the whole feed and the follow-up. We often work side by side.
- La Leche League Canada. LLLC Leaders are trained volunteers who have breastfed their own babies. They’re wonderful company when feeding’s going well, and they’ll refer you to an IBCLC when something needs a closer look. We’re proud to work alongside them.
What is a community IBCLC?
Anyone can call themselves a lactation consultant. The letters IBCLC are the gold standard in lactation care and infant feeding support, and they are earned: IBCLCs complete health science education, lactation-specific education, supervised clinical practice and an international exam, and recertify every five years.
Community IBCLCs are in private practice close to home. You can book directly, with no referral, and we’ll see you at home, in our office or online, for pain, supply worries, or problems that keep coming back, for this baby and the next.
Some hospitals, public health units and community health centres fund IBCLC care where they’ve shown the local need. Some of that care needs a referral first, and pain and low supply don’t keep while you wait for one. Whether it’s offered at all depends on where you live, because Ontario has no province-wide funding for IBCLC care.
Do you refer families, or advocate for breastfeeding support?
Send a family to an IBCLC
The register of International Board Certified Lactation Consultants practising in Ontario, nearest first. Free to search, with no paid placement.
Find community support
Peer groups, drop-ins and programs that help families feed, listed by the programs themselves. Not a substitute for an IBCLC, and often the thing a family needs alongside one.
A case for funding
What this care costs a family, what it saves a health system, and what a funded pilot would need.
Are you an IBCLC?
If you are an IBCLC in Ontario, practising or retired, add your name alongside ours. It is free, it takes about ten minutes, and you can take it down whenever you like.