Ethics of IBCLC Lactation Consultants and Marketing Deviations in Breastfeeding Support

The World of Breastfeeding Support in Transformation

In recent years, breastfeeding support has become increasingly widespread. On social media, we see a proliferation of "pumping coaches", "perinatal support workers", "pumping experts", "breastfeeding facilitators", and even "lactation consultants" without IBCLC certification.

A whole network of directories has also emerged, organizing consultations and online workshops that promise visibility for a considerable fee. This increased visibility might seem positive: breastfeeding is gaining more presence in public discourse. But behind this popularity lies a reality that gives us pause , and so we offer an ethical reflection on the deviations in breastfeeding support.

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Level of Training in Breastfeeding Support

Indeed, many of these new figures have only a very limited level of training, often from private, unrecognized curricula. Lacking a solid grounding in physiology, pathology, or pharmacology, these support workers cannot always evaluate the relevance and reliability of the information they disseminate. University diploma programs have also proliferated at many institutions, again with variable standards. While many of these new players in breastfeeding support provide basic information and essential support, some inadvertently reproduce erroneous narratives originating from training of questionable quality — which ultimately harms families.

The Role of IBCLCs: Competence, Science and Ethics

Ethics of IBCLC Lactation Consultants

IBCLC lactation consultants, for their part, are grounded in a rigorous level of training and clinical practice and an international code of ethics defined by the IBLCE.

Under this code, they commit to:

"1. Provide services that protect, promote and support breastfeeding 2. Act with reasonable diligence 3. Maintain confidentiality 4. Make accurate and complete transmissions to other members of the care team 5. Exercise independent judgment and avoid conflicts of interest 6. Demonstrate personal integrity 7. Adhere to the professional standards expected of an IBCLC 8. Comply with IBLCE disciplinary procedures"

and more specifically:

Provide culturally appropriate care based on the best available scientific evidence, so as to meet the individual needs of each client.
Provide accurate and sufficient information to allow clients to make informed decisions.
Convey accurate, complete and objective information about commercial products.
Present information without personal bias.

This ethical framework protects families, but also the credibility of the profession. This is what distinguishes a professional approach to support from a simple "breastfeeding support" service widely offered by influencers on social media.

Today, we are sorry that the ethical discussion focuses almost exclusively on compliance with the WHO Code on the marketing of breast-milk substitutes, and the risks associated with aggressive marketing of infant formula. This conversation is paramount but incomplete in light of the new commercial pressures exploding in the world of perinatal care.

When Ethics Give Way to Marketing

In a context where social media amplifies the visibility of certain offerings, IBCLCs sometimes find themselves in competition with very active but underqualified profiles. Certain partnerships also raise questions: some consultants, even IBCLC-certified ones, collaborate with breast pump rental companies, galactagogue supplement brands, or breastfeeding equipment vendors.

Given the limited recognition of this profession, the difficulty of making a living solely from lactation consultations, and competition from non-expert profiles, it is understandable that these partnerships, which generate visibility and recognition , can be attractive to an IBCLC lactation consultant.

However, this association creates confusion: the public perceives the consultant as a scientific endorser of the products. Indirectly, these partnerships validate the relevance of certain brands and legitimize commercial practices that are not always backed by solid evidence.

The risk is twofold:

trust bias among families, who can no longer tell whether advice is impartial;
erosion of the collective credibility of IBCLCs, who are otherwise guarantors of independent practice.

The IBFAN (International Baby Food Action Network) September 2025 report states:

"IBFAN is concerned that commercial promotion of breast pumps may undermine the normal relationship with breastfeeding (direct breastfeeding) and the practice of manual expression (to express breast milk when necessary). In order to generate the expected profits for owners and shareholders, breast pump manufacturers widely promote their products to the healthcare sector, the general public, and expectant and new parents who do not always realize they need personalized support to use them correctly."

When Parenthood Becomes a Market

Breastfeeding support is now embedded in a commercial ecosystem where everything is for sale:

galactagogue supplements, supposedly designed to boost milk production: postpartum spreads, energy bars for new mothers, an array of products specifically formulated for breastfeeding mothers and sold at premium prices, while their efficacy is contested (notably by the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine). The intensive marketing of these products perpetuates the myth that mothers' bodies are incapable of producing adequate milk, and their use substitutes for breastfeeding management practices that actually support lactation.
nipple prevention devices (silver nipple cups, breast shells, etc.) that promote maceration, dermatitis, fungal infections, and mastitis by pressing against the breast (Douglas, 2022).
all manner of equipment: from inflatable breastfeeding pillows to high-end pumping equipment...
Antenatal colostrum collection syringes are another example, where excessive marketing can have detrimental consequences for breastfeeding — see the article by Mina Ognjanovic Jasovic on this subject
"baby sleep coaching",
Consultations around "tongue-ties", which are likely overdiagnosed, where management is organized through multidisciplinary pathways that refer parents from one specialist to another, creating an anxiety-inducing spiral of over-medicalization that dilutes individual accountability.

While it seems important to build a network in order to refer a mother at risk for postpartum depression to a psychologist, for example, it sometimes appears that "multidisciplinary" work risks becoming a form of patient-sharing arrangement, a practice prohibited for healthcare professionals. But again, since many of these new profiles are not healthcare professionals...

This drift is progressively transforming parents into consumers and babies into projects to be optimized. Discourse is becoming increasingly medicalized — but by non-physicians: "the baby has a restrictive posterior tongue-tie, we'll do massage sessions to loosen it and avoid frenotomy", "you should pump colostrum during pregnancy to avoid supplementation in the maternity ward", "the baby has a sleep disorder"... The risk here is to pathologize normality and to erode families' confidence in their parenting abilities.

This system, far from supporting breastfeeding, complicates it. It diverts attention from fundamental needs: closeness, support, rest, attentive listening, and when needed, professional guidance.

Who Trains IBCLC Lactation Consultants?

IBCLC Training Delivered by Equipment Vendors or by Individuals Without IBCLC Certification or Scientific Background

The question of training also arises in the context of the ethics of IBCLC lactation consultants.

A growing number of breast pump rental companies and breastfeeding equipment vendors are offering training sessions (often free of charge), conducted by IBCLC lactation consultants, whether directed at IBCLCs themselves or at healthcare professionals in hospital settings.

This too raises an ethical question:

Is it really the place of equipment vendors to train lactation consultants?

The parallel with pharmaceutical companies and physicians is obvious, and the Transparence Santé website was established to limit the deviations linked to these practices.

Attending a training session organized by a breast pump rental company on breastfeeding pain automatically induces a conflict of interest bias in the trainee (where professional judgment is influenced ,consciously or not , by a secondary interest, generally financial or based on loyalty to a third party), along with a reciprocity bias: when one receives something (free training, a meal, a gift, recognition...), there is a natural tendency to want to "give back".

Also possible are framing bias (the way information is presented during training influences perception of the product) and confirmation bias (once convinced by the training, the professional tends to retain only information that confirms what they learned, and to disregard information pointing in the opposite direction).

This phenomenon recurs during conferences given by IBCLCs for dietary supplement brands, as well as in congresses partially funded by such companies. Inevitably, proximity to commercial interests generates goodwill in the audience, which finds itself consciously or unconsciously influenced.

The reverse is also observed: a self-proclaimed expert, sometimes without certification or scientific background, or who does not adhere to scientific consensus, becomes a trainer of breastfeeding professionals.

Establishing Ethical and Professional Standards

To restore trust, it would be worthwhile to:

promote the IBCLC certification and its associated code of ethics,
refuse, as a breastfeeding and perinatal professional, any partnership or training that may create a conflict of interest,
communicate transparently about one's actual competencies,
promote high-quality, accessible, and independent scientific information.

The goal is not to exclude, but to clarify roles: families must know who they are consulting, and on what basis the advice they receive is grounded.

Conclusion

For some, breastfeeding is a marketing niche ....but above all, it is a public health issue, an essential biological and emotional bond that deserves to be protected from any commercial exploitation.

IBCLC consultants, through their ethics and expertise, are essential guardians of this bond , provided they themselves remain independent of commercial pressure.