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Certified lactation counselor skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Kacie Blalock Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical certified lactation counselor skills. We ranked the top skills for certified lactation counselors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 16.0% of certified lactation counselor resumes contained infant care as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a certified lactation counselor needs to be successful in the workplace.

14 certified lactation counselor skills for your resume and career

1. Infant Care

Here's how certified lactation counselors use infant care:

Provided detailed oral and hands-on education regarding breastfeeding and infant care.

2. WIC

WIC is a special supplemental nutrition program for women, Infants, and Children (WIC). It is a federal assistance program of the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for nutrition and healthcare of low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and children under the age of five. The mission is to partner with other services that are vital to childhood and family well-being.

Here's how certified lactation counselors use wic:

Work with mothers and newborns to overcome obstacles related to nutrition and compliment and emphasize the WIC program.
Provided demonstrations to WIC staff explaining the proper use & handling of electric breast pumps.

3. Nutrition Education

Here's how certified lactation counselors use nutrition education:

Can implement referrals for resources.Conduct nutrition education programs.
Train new employees and supervise interns Contribute to the development of nutrition education material that is distributed to patients.

4. Clinical Management

Here's how certified lactation counselors use clinical management:

Provide lactation care and clinical management through systematic problem solving to breastfeeding mothers.

5. Emotional Support

At its core, emotional support involves providing support, reassurance, acceptance, love, and encouragement. It is especially important in a time of stress/sadness as it stabilizes an individual and provides a positive foundation for trust. Honing this skill is important for individuals who want to pursue the career of caregivers and emotional support nurses. Their job includes monitoring mental health and helping patients to handle any mental challenge.

Here's how certified lactation counselors use emotional support:

Provide emotional support through active listening, along with disaster recovery public education and information to individuals, families and groups.
Provided emotional support and counseling to individuals, families and groups by listening and facilitating mental health throughout central Mississippi.

6. Patient Care

Patient care entails the diagnosis, recovery, and control of sickness as well as the maintenance of physical and emotional well-being through the use of healthcare providers' services. Patient care is described as services provided to patients by health practitioners or non-professionals under guidance.

Here's how certified lactation counselors use patient care:

Developed patient care plans including assessments, evaluations and nursing diagnosis.
Served as a respected consultant to physicians in providing quality patient care within a medical setting.

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7. Birth Process

Here's how certified lactation counselors use birth process:

Support families through their birth process, at home and at the hospital.

8. Community Outreach

Here's how certified lactation counselors use community outreach:

Provided individual crisis counseling, community outreach, public education and referral services to hurricane Wilma survivors in Martin County.
Managed and created prevention/educational programs for at risk youth and provided community outreach and chaired national Red Ribbon campaign

9. Public Health

Here's how certified lactation counselors use public health:

Make referrals to Lactation consultant, physicians, nurses, and other public health organization and Social service agencies.
Experience and knowledge of programs offered by Public Health.

10. Nutritional Risk

Here's how certified lactation counselors use nutritional risk:

Assess diet history and determine nutritional risk factors to decide the proper supplemental food package best suitable for the patient.
Performed nutrition counseling to determine nutritional risk factors, address client concern, goals, and interest.

11. Support Services

Support services are services that support the organization internally and are usually non-revenue generating. Examples include, IT, admin, HR, etc.

Here's how certified lactation counselors use support services:

Provided mental health treatment, support services, and academic assistance to emotionally and behaviorally troubled adolescents within a classroom setting.
Managed outplacement project delivering training programs, producing resumes and providing support services for Celestica-Tennessee consisting of more than 200 employees.

12. Mental Health

Mental health is the state of wellbeing in which an individual can cope with the regular stresses and tensions of life, and can work productively without having any emotional or psychological breakdown. Mental health is essential for a person of any age and helps them make the right decisions in their life.

Here's how certified lactation counselors use mental health:

Provided community education services addressing church groups, civic organizations and school related organizations about disaster mental health issues.
Facilitate involuntary commitments to psychiatric treatment in conjunction with the Bucks County office of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities.

13. Educational Materials

Educational materials are items and accessories that are used to enhance learning in any given educational setting. They vary per setting and may include audio or visual aids, textbooks, tools, devices, machinery, gadgets, and virtually ant media that can improve the learning process of any individual at the primary or advanced educational level.

Here's how certified lactation counselors use educational materials:

Deliver educational material to clients based on using pamphlets, visuals and displays.

14. Health Professionals

Here's how certified lactation counselors use health professionals:

Networked with other health professionals, such as private physicians/nurses, to identify patients with nutritional problems.

What skills help Certified Lactation Counselors find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What soft skills should all certified lactation counselors possess?

Kacie Blalock Ph.D.

Associate Professor; Director, Master of Counseling, Louisiana State University at Shreveport

Soft skills that are essential for counselors include emotional intelligence, empathy, multicultural competency, interpersonal abilities, and authenticity.

Do you want to know more?

List of certified lactation counselor skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a certified lactation counselor resume and required skills for a certified lactation counselor to have include:

Infant Care
WIC
Nutrition Education
Clinical Management
Emotional Support

Patient Care
Birth Process
Community Outreach
Public Health
Nutritional Risk

Support Services
Mental Health
Educational Materials
Health Professionals

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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