These statements identify the competencies that are essential for practice as a childbirth educator and reflect the specialized knowledge of a childbirth educator certified by Lamaze International.

A Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator (LCCE) is able to:

• Promote the childbearing experience as a normal, natural and healthy process that profoundly affects women and their families.
• Assist women and families to discover and use strategies that facilitate normal, natural and healthy pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and early parenting.
• Help women and their families to understand how interventions and complications influence the normal course of labor and birth.
• Promote attachment between babies and their families by providing information about the capabilities and needs of the newborn and the parents.
• Assist women and their families to make informed decisions about childbearing.
• Act as an advocate to promote normal, natural, healthy and fulfilling childbearing experiences for women and their families.
• Design, teach and evaluate a course in Lamaze preparation that increases a woman’s confidence and ability to give birth.