Global Breastfeeding Support Community Lactnet Honored for Email List Communication Excellence

Group Wins Innovation Award in L-Soft's LISTSERV® Choice Awards -- the
Only Global Recognition for Outstanding Email Lists

Erlangen (June 9, 2006) -- Lactnet, a major online resource for the
professional and lay breastfeeding support community, has won the
LISTSERV Innovation Award in L-Soft's 2005-2006 LISTSERV Choice Awards program. The award recognises more than a decade of Lactnet's creative and effective use of email list technology in promoting maternal-child health on a global scale.

Lactnet runs on L-Soft's hosted email list service, powered by
LISTSERV®, the email list solution that launched the industry in 1986.
The list is designed for anyone involved in providing support to mothers
in breastfeeding their infants and young children. Founded by Kathleen
Bruce, a Vermont, USA nurse and International Board Certified Lactation
Consultant (IBCLC), and Kathleen Auerbach, PhD, IBCLC, who wanted to
create a network of support for isolated lactation consultants who
lacked the benefit of local peers, Lactnet has been operating for 11
years and has approximately 3,500 subscribers from 38 countries -- including the UK -- covering every continent except Antarctica. It is led by Kathleen Bruce and five co-facilitators or "listmothers" across the Europe, the United States and Australia.

With the past decade of scientific advancements in lactation research
and breastfeeding, virtually all relevant government agencies and
medical associations -- including the World Health Organisation, UNICEF
and the UK Government -- have issued position statements and launched major initiatives supporting breastfeeding as the optimal source of infant
nutrition and nurturing as well as a significant contributor to maternal
health.

Rather than providing direct support to breastfeeding mothers, Lactnet
serves a broad group of individuals involved in supporting mothers in
breastfeeding their infants and young children, with members including
lactation consultants, lay breastfeeding counselors, nurses, doctors,
midwives, public health advocates, pharmacologists, marketing experts,
writers, journalists, scientists, dieticians and doulas. The goal is to
provide information, tools and support to those who work on the
frontlines with mothers and babies during a critical and vulnerable
time, the early days and weeks of nursing as well as later when other
challenges may arise.

"By having contributors from such diverse practice settings, we see that
with knowledgeable support, mothers can overcome almost any challenge to continue to breastfeed their babies. We plan for Lactnet to continue to
support breastfeeding advocates indefinitely," said Karleen Gribble,
Lactnet co-facilitator, of New South Wales, Australia.

"Lactnet uses the power of email list technology to provide its members
with instant and constant access to a wealth of knowledge from thousands
of experts -- something that I daresay no other medium could accomplish
so well for such a geographically dispersed professional community. As a
result, Lactnet is impressive in its reach and in the immediacy and
dynamism of the list activity. For example, just after the events of
September 11, 2001, members living in other nations where acts of
terrorism are common reached out and provided expertise to Lactnet
members in New York, preparing the New York lactation support community for the kinds of questions and problems they might encounter from breastfeeding mothers as their city reacted to what had happened that day," said Eric Thomas, L-Soft Founder and CEO and inventor of
LISTSERV®. "Lactnet deploys LISTSERV round-the-clock to set off a chain
reaction -- helping support professionals to empower and assist mothers
in providing their babies with optimal nutrition and nurturing --
contributing to the global positive impact of healthier mothers and
healthier children."

In addition to active daily list postings and discussions, Lactnet
utilizes digests to provide scientific and practical information in a
user-friendly format on a wide range of topics that are important to
lactation educators. Lactnet also offers public list archives that
provide members as well as the general public with an online compendium of the list's lively discussions, which span the areas of difficult breastfeeding problems; ethical issues; information on newly published articles, books or research; controversial issues; networking; and emotional and informational support among members.

Lactnet members are extremely appreciative of the support the email list
provides. "I wanted to add my congratulations to Lactnet and the
listmothers for a well-deserved award. I cannot even begin to thank you
for the information, advice, and camaraderie I have found here. I only
wish I had found Lactnet years ago. I hope that Lactnet will be around
for a long time to come," said Renee Drake, list member from Orland,
California, USA.

To read more about the LISTSERV Choice Awards winners, visit:
http://www.lsoft.com/news/choicewinners.asp

To learn more about Lactnet, visit:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/lactnet.html


About L-Soft

L-Soft, which was incorporated in 1994, offers email list and opt-in email marketing software and hosting services for managing email newsletters, discussion groups and marketing campaigns. L-Soft's products send about 30 million messages a day to more than 110 million list subscriptions. L-Soft celebrates the 20th anniversary of LISTSERV® in 2006.

Opt-in to receive L-Soft's latest news and press releases at: www.lsoft.com/contact/optin.asp

L-SOFT GERMANY GMBH PRESSE KONTAKT
Claudia Schweiger
Tel: +49 (0)9131-9779977
Email: claudia.schweiger@lsoft.com

L-Soft, which was incorporated in 1994, offers email list and opt-in email marketing software and hosting services for managing email newsletters, discussion groups and marketing campaigns. L-Soft's products send about 30 million messages a day to more than 110 million list subscriptions. L-Soft celebrates the 20th anniversary of LISTSERV® in 2006.

Opt-in to receive L-Soft's latest news and press releases at: www.lsoft.com/contact/optin.asp

L-Soft Germany GmbH
Lazarettstr. 8
91054 Erlangen
Germany
Kontakt:
Claudia Schweiger
claudia.schweiger@lsoft.com
09131-9779977

This release was published on openPR.