CHEER is honored to present the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award to Cathy Carothers, BLA, IBCLC, FILCA. Cathy is a national breastfeeding promotion and support expert and Co-Director of Every Mother, Inc., a nonprofit organization providing counseling and lactation training for health professionals across the United States. We celebrate her lifelong dedication to providing breastfeeding support, education, and inspiration.
Cathy is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 1996, past President and Fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association, past Chair of the United States Breastfeeding Committee, and current North American representative to the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) Steering Committee. She has provided more than 1,000 lactation workshops and trainings in every US state and territory and many countries. Cathy has been a CHAMPS consultant, trainer, and hospital coach since 2015.
“I love to teach people and hopefully inspire them about the importance of breastfeeding,” Cathy shares. “If folks don’t remember anything else when leaving a training, I hope they leave feeling inspired – with the idea that breastfeeding matters, what they do matters, and they can make a profound difference in the lives of their patients.”
Cathy’s infectious passion for breastfeeding comes from a childhood watching her mother breastfeed 10 of her younger siblings. She recalls sitting in a small rocking chair, holding her baby doll, and imitating her mother breastfeeding her little brother.
“I watched my little brother looking at my mother, gazing up at her with such admiration. I remember having an overwhelming feeling that when I grow up, I want to breastfeed my children like this, too.”
“It wasn’t until many years later when I had given birth to my oldest child, sitting in my adult-sized rocking chair and nursing my baby, that those memories came flooding back. I realized what a legacy my mother had given to me and my siblings. I think that experience growing up and seeing breastfeeding normalized has led to the passion that I have today.”
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