Hello!  My name is Laura Aldag and I am a registered dietitian and more
importantly I coordinate a Breastfeeding Support Project through the
University of Arizona Cooperative Extension System.  The Project is funded
by U.S.D.A. and is in its last year of funding.  I went into this project
only having my personal experience with breastfeeding to guide me but in the
last two years I have learned so much about breastfeeding issues through
this project.  I still have so much more to learn and I was thrilled to
learn about lactnet.  I have also recently joined ILCA and am planning to
attend my first conference in Scottsdale next week.  I work part-time as the
Project coordinator and I supervise two bilingual paraprofessional
Breastfeeding Counselors.  The Project provides education and support to WIC
clients, prmarily Hispanic women.  We work by doing home, hospital, and
phone support.  In the last two years over 300 women have enrolled in the
project.  We have about a 91% breastfeeding rate at hospital discharge and
about 33% are still breastfeeding at 6 months. I give all the credit to the
two breastfeeding counselors who are so dedicated to breastfeeding and
serving our clients.  My dream is that some day both of them will be
Lactation Consultants.  We also work with peer Breastfeeding Counselors who
are WIC clients who were trained through collaboration with LLL to provide
support to other WIC clients.  Right now we are waiting to hear if we will
continue to receive funding so that we will be able to continue with the
program.  As for my own breastfeeding experience, I breastfed my 8 yr old
until she was 13 months and I am currently breastfeeding my 10 month old son
with no signs from him of slowing down!  I look forward to meeting many of
you next week in Scottsdale!