Lactation Consultant (Non-RN): how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

An individual trained to provide breastfeeding assistance services to both mothers and infants. Lactation Consultants are not required to be nurses and are trained through specific courses of education. The Lactation Consultant may have additional certification through a national or international organization.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 58.5% of active records are flagged as sole proprietors in NPPES. That flag is self-reported and is an imperfect proxy for private practice: it describes a reported business designation, not whether a provider works independently, owns a practice, or provides services outside an organization. Use it as an indicator of reported structure, not as a direct count of privately practicing lactation consultants.

By state

New NPI registrations by year

Counts reflect the year each NPI was first issued, among records still active today. The final year is partial: this data covers through 2026-01-11.

Data notes

• The sole-proprietor field is self-reported by the provider in NPPES and is an imperfect proxy for private practice.
• A sole-proprietor count shown as <11 is suppressed: the true value is below 11, which could include zero.
• - The count covers active NPI records with this primary taxonomy, not a census of every person who provides lactation support.
• - NPPES taxonomy and business-status fields can be updated or may not reflect current practice arrangements.
• Providers are counted once, by their primary taxonomy code only.

Source: CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Data Dissemination file, FOIA-disclosable public data under CMS-6060-N. Aggregated by Hero EMR on 2026-08-03; deactivated NPIs excluded; specialty assigned from the primary taxonomy code (NUCC 25.1). Counts below 11 are suppressed. Individual providers are never published. All provider data pages.

Common questions