Managing Challenges at the Breast Lecture Pack

Cathy Carothers is co-director of Every Mother, a non-profit organization providing lactation training for health professionals. An International Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 1996, she has provided more than 600 training events and conference presentations in every U.S. state/territory and several countries. She is past president of the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA), a fellow of ILCA, and past chair of the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee. She chairs the design team for the equity initiative in the lactation consultant profession, and chairs the Monetary Investment for Lactation Consultant Certification (MILCC), which works to reduce financial barriers to the IBCLC exam. She has directed several national breastfeeding promotion and support initiatives for the U.S. federal government, including the national USDA WIC peer counseling program, and national workplace support initiatives through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She was honored with the 2014 National Leadership Award from the National WIC Association.

Nancy has been providing breastfeeding help and support for 40 years and has been a national speaker for 30. She has been a perinatal educator and consultant since the late 1970’s. Her second career is that of a Marriage and Family Therapist. Her passion is to explore the larger picture of the mother-baby dyad in the context of the breastfeeding relationship.

Catherine Watson Genna BS, IBCLC is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in private practice in New York City. Certified in 1992, Catherine is particularly interested in helping moms and babies breastfeed when they have medical challenges and is an active clinical mentor. She speaks to healthcare professionals around the world on assisting breastfeeding babies with anatomical, genetic or neurological problems. Her presentations and her writing are enriched by her clinical photographs and videos. Catherine collaborates with Columbia University and Tel Aviv University Departments of Biomedical Engineering on research projects investigating the biomechanics of the lactating nipple and various aspects of sucking and swallowing in breastfeeding infants. She is the author of Selecting and Using Breastfeeding Tools: Improving Care and Outcomes (Praeclarus Press 2009) and Supporting Sucking Skills in Breastfeeding Infants (Jones and Bartlett Learning 2008, 2013, 2017) as well as professional journal articles and chapters in the Core Curriculum for Lactation Consultant Practice and Breastfeeding and Human Lactation. Catherine served as Associate Editor of the United States Lactation Consultant Association’s official journal Clinical Lactation for its first seven years.

Michelle has been a pediatric neurodevelopmental Occupational therapist specializing in precrawling infants for over 26 years. She has specialty certifications and training in lactation, manual therapy, and pre and peri natal psychology. Michelle has specialized in optimal cranial nerve function and oral restrictions, with an emphasis on infant movement, innate biological imperatives and human potential, providing novel curriculums, support and resources for both professionals and parents. She enjoys collaborating and working in teams for babies and families going through the tethered oral tissues release process.

Pamela Morrison has worked with breastfeeding mothers and babies for 30 years. She served as a La Leche League Leader in Harare, Zimbabwe from 1987 before certifying as the first IBCLC in the country in 1990. She worked in private practice until 2003, before moving to Australia and then to England. She served for many years on the Zimbabwean National Breastfeeding Committee and on the BFHI Task Force. She has subsequently served as Co-coordinator of the WABA Task Forces on Infants Nutrition Rights and on Breastfeeding and HIV. Pamela continues to write and speak for the preservation and protection of breastfeeding in challenging situations.

Maureen Minchin is a medical historian whose 1970s experience of motherhood resulted in her second book, Food for Thought: a parent’s guide to food intolerance, recognized as ground breaking in its treatment of infant allergy. Her third book, Breastfeeding Matters, was declared a “milestone in the history of breastfeeding” by Prof JD Baum. For 35 years she has worked extensively in the area of infant nutrition, including for WHO, and UNICEF, and teaching health professionals in Australia and overseas. She was influential in the creation of IBLCE and BFHI, and a founding (and later Board) member of both ILCA and ALCA. Maureen has continued to work free of charge with families with both infant feeding and allergy problems. After a decade in eldercare, Maureen is getting back to writing, recently helping with the online infant feeding courses being developed by the UK’s University of York and the National HS-sponsored e-learning for health project. Her latest book, Milk Matters: Infant Feeding and Immune Disorder was published in 2015.