Uzazi Village

The Lactation Mentorship Program was created to bring equity to the Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) credential. The current membership is estimated to be 87.1% White, 1.6% Black, 4.7% Latina, 1.4% Asian, and 0.8% Native American. These percentages do not reflect current percentages within the American population and as such reflect racially-based disparities in the profession which can impact access to professional lactation care for communities of color and other vulnerable communities. Our program provides 500 mentorship hours by linking interns with qualified sites throughout our city. Our program is designed to help diversify the profession and thereby give more women of color access to IBCLCs. The program works on a sliding scale fee based on income. Our interns take an average of 10 months to get their 500 hours working 2-3 eight hour shifts a week. Our capacity is based on the number of available sites. We have had nine interns total.