Lamaze Certification

Certification Preparation Resources

Lamaze offers a variety of resources designed to help you prepare for and ace the LCCE Exam.

Educator Seminars

Our trainers are among the most highly skilled childbirth educators in the world, and a Lamaze-Accredited Childbirth Educator Seminar is the gold standard for training new childbirth educators. You’ll learn how to teach creative, hands-on childbirth education for Millennials and Gen Z, all based on the highest quality evidence. You may already know a lot about birth, but our trainers will teach you how to teach.

Find an Educator Seminar Near You

Lamaze Educator Learning Guide

The Lamaze Educator Learning Guide is a self-study resource designed to help you develop the competencies of a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator. It prepares you to teach the essential content for Lamaze classes and will continue to serve as an important reference for evidence-based information throughout your professional career.

Learning Content Includes

Module I: Professional Role of the Childbirth Educator
Module II: Promoting Safe and Healthy Pregnancy
Module III: Promoting Safe and Healthy Birth
Module IV: Healthy Baby, Breastfeeding/Chestfeeding, Postpartum, and Early Parenting
Module V: Teaching
Module VI: Changing the World of Birth

Educator Learning Guide

Lamaze Exam Blueprint

The Lamaze Exam Blueprint contains valuable information on the content assessed on the exam as well as the respective weights for each content area.

¡El modelo del examen también está disponible en español!

Blueprint (English)

Blueprint (en Español)

Educator Essentials

The Lamaze Educator Essentials were created to offer an alternative for experienced educators to learn and understand the Lamaze approach to childbirth education and in circumstances when attending a live seminar is not an option. Learn more about the three modules:

LCCE Competencies

The seven Lamaze Childbirth Educator competencies represent a comprehensive set of values and skills that LCCE educators foster and consistently demonstrate.

Promotes the childbearing experience as a normal, natural, and healthy process which profoundly affects birthing parents and their families.
Assists birthing parents and their families to discover and to use strategies to facilitate normal, natural, and healthy pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and early parenting.
Helps birthing parents and their families to understand how complications and interventions influence the normal course of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and early postpartum.
Provides information and support that encourages attachment between babies and their families.
Assists birthing parents and their families to make informed decisions for childbearing.
Acts as an advocate to promote, support, and protect natural, safe and healthy birth.
Designs, teaches, and evaluates a course in Lamaze preparation that increases a birthing parents’ confidence and ability to give birth.

Supplemental Readings in English and Spanish

Lamaze International has developed a list of supplemental readings for Lamaze Certification Exam candidates. This list is intended for use in conjunction with the Learning Guide. Each text contains pertinent information for the childbirth educator on topics including pregnancy, labor support, breastfeeding, and early parenting. Some materials are also available in video format. For videos hosted on YouTube, you may use the built-in “auto-translation” feature, which supports multiple languages via Google Translate and works on most videos with closed captions. Lamaze cannot verify the accuracy of these translations.

Although some texts on the main list are offered in other languages, all materials on the Spanish reading list are guaranteed to be available in Spanish.

English

+ Adult Learning

Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, University of Washington School of Public Health. (2015). Effective adult learning – A toolkit for teaching adults. **ONLINE COURSE** Note: You will be asked to create an account to access this resource. No cost. 120 minutes.

+ Breastfeeding

Center for Disease Control (2025). About Breastfeeding.
Institute for the Advancement of Breastfeeding & Lactation Education (2022). Manual Expression of Breastmilk. Note: video, 2:04 minutes.
The Lamaze Podcast (2022) Newborn and Safe Sleep. Season 2, Episode 6. Note: 44 minutes.
Office on Women's Health. (2022). Your guide to breastfeeding. Note: 60 pages.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2011). Executive Summary of The Surgeon General's call to action to support breastfeeding. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General.Note: 4 pages.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2016). Five-year update to The Surgeon General's call to action to support breastfeeding (2011). Note: 2 pages.

+ Cultural Competence

Dean, R.A. (2010). Cultural competence – Nursing in a multicultural society. Nursing for Women’s Health, 14(1), 50-59.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, August 22). Moms Deserve Respectful and Equal Maternity Care. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Note: ASL videos in Spanish and English are available.
The Lamaze Podcast. (2021). Advocating for Reproductive Health Among Black Women. Season 1, Episode 5. Note: 51 minutes.
Rakime, Elmir. (2024) Culturally Responsive Maternity Care. Practising Midwife Essentials. Volume 2, Issue 4, pages 1-16.
Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality. (2024) Respectful Maternity Care: Dissemination and Implementation of Perinatal Safety Culture To Improve Equitable Maternal Healthcare Delivery and Outcomes. Publication No. 24-EHC009. Note: 181 pages.

+ Labor and Childbirth

Kopas, ML. (2014) A Review of Evidence-Based Practices for the Management of the Second Stage of Labor. Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health. Note: 13 pages.
Six Healthy Birth Practice Papers. (2019) Note: available in various languages.
- Video clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7uRWKG-YDk
The Lamaze Podcast (2022) Breathing During Labor. Season 2, Episode 7. Note: 38 minutes.
The Lamaze Podcast (2021) Progressing Labor Without Pitocin. Season 1, Episode 3. Note: 27 minutes.
The Lamaze Podcast (2024) VBAC and the Birth Experience Study (BESt): What Australian Women Want for Their Births. Season 4, Episode 6. Note: 1 hour 5 minutes.
Lothian, J. & DeVries, C. (2017). Giving birth with confidence (3rd edition). New York, NY: Meadowbrook Press.
Smith, H., Peterson, N., Lagrew, D. & Main, E. (2022). Toolkit to support vaginal birth and reduce primary cesareans: A quality improvement toolkit. Stanford, CA: California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative. Note: You will be asked to create an account to access this resource. There is no cost. 191 pages.
World Health Organization (WHO). (2018). WHO recommendations: Intrapartum care for a positive childbirth experience. Geneva: WHO. Note: Executive summary and recommendations pages 3-7. Available in Chinese, Mongolian, Arabic, Japanese, French, Russian, and Spanish. 238 pages.

+ Physiology (Pregnancy & Childbirth)

Buckley, S. (2015). Executive summary: Hormonal physiology of childbearing: Evidence and implications for women, babies, and maternity care. Childbirth Connection/National Partnership for Women & Families. Note: 15 pages.
The Lamaze Podcast. (2022) Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy Season 2, Episode 3. Note: 57 minutes.
Lamaze Intl Podcast. (2023) Does the Microbiome Really Matter? Season 3, Episode 7. Note: 1 hour 2 minutes.

+ Global Health

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Surgeon General. (2020). The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Improve Maternal Health. Note: 71 pages.
WHO. (2023). Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2020: estimates by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and UNDESA/Population Division. www.who.int. Note: available in various languages. 108 pages.

+ Lamaze International

Lamaze International. (2017). Certification Council: Code of ethics for Lamaze certified childbirth educators. Washington, DC: Lamaze International.

+ Multi-topical

Simkin P, Whalley J et al (2024). Childbirth, and the Newborn: The Complete Guide. Balance Press.
- 2010 Spanish edition- Guia Sencilla para Tener un Bebe: Lo que Usted Necesita Saber. de Janet Whalley (Author),Penny Simkin(Author), Ann Keppler (Author), Emma Christina Montana (Translator).

+ Respectful Care

White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood. (2011). Respectful Maternity Care: The Universal Rights of Childbearing Women. Washington, DC. Note: 6 pages.
International Childbirth Initiative. (2019). The International Childbirth Initiative (ICI): 12 Steps to Safe and Respectful MotherBaby-Family Maternity Care. Note: Available in various languages. 28 pages.
Ramey-Collier K, Jackson M, Malloy A, McMillan C, Scraders-Pyatt A, Wheeler SM. Doula Care: A Review of Outcomes and Impact on Birth Experience. Obstet Gynecol Surv. (2023) doi: 10.1097/OGX.0000000000001103. PMID: 36786720.

En Español

+ Breastfeeding

Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (2025). Practitioner Handouts. (Multiple Languages)

+ Cultural Competence

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, August 22). Moms Deserve Respectful and Equal Maternity Care. ASL video in Spanish.

+ Labor and Childbirth

Lamaze (2019). Six Healthy Birth Practice Papers.
World Health Organization (WHO). (2018). Recomendaciones de la OMS: cuidados durante el parto para una experiencia de parto positiva. (238 pages).

+ Multi-Topical

Simkin P, Whalley J et al (2024). Guia Sencilla para Tener un Bebe: Lo que Usted Necesita Saber.

Thank you to our dedicated Education Committee volunteers who have updated this list over the years.