Doris Wogec is standing inside Mercy San Juan Medical Center's maternity unit, gazing at one of her star pupils.

"This baby knows just what to do," she says, referring to tiny Alyssa Bracamonte, whose mother, Tammie, is feeding the bundled newborn. "She would be great in a video!"

Wogec is something of a star in her own right. Approaching 80 years old, she has no plans to retire from her job as a registered nurse whose current specialty is helping moms successfully breast-feed their babies.

Sure, she has thought about turning in her stethoscope, putting aside her pager and hanging up her white lab coat after nearly four decades of nursing. "But I just can't do it," she says. "I can't get along without seeing my babies."

Displaying a firmness and authority that command attention, the petite, sparkly-eyed Wogec is an institution who roams the hallways at Mercy hospitals throughout the Sacramento area.

"The moms respect her because of her age and knowledge," says Sheri Williamson, manager of Mercy San Juan's Family Birth Center in Carmichael. "She will butt heads and can get up in the faces of other nurses if she doesn't like what they are doing. But her intentions are always the best."

Wogec puts in about 20 hours a week these days as a lactation consultant, teaching moms and newborns how to get the most out of breast-feeding.

The medical benefits of breast-feeding have been widely documented. Infants fed with breast milk tend to be healthier, with stronger immune systems and fewer infections. Breast-feeding is practical and economical, Wogec insists, costing virtually nothing, while canned formula can run as much as $2,000 per year.

The best time to start breast-feeding is right after the baby is born, yet the technique does not come naturally to all babies or mothers. Wogec does her best to smooth the path, offering tips about everything from timing to positioning.

"Breast-feeding is a skill that both mom and baby need to learn," Wogec said on a recent afternoon.

In the midst of her rounds, she checked on Shannon Bladow and her new baby, Audrey. Audrey had been less than ravenous in her first 24 hours of life, but Wogec put her mom's mind at ease about that.

"Babies are born very well nourished," Wogec said, and they tend to sleep a lot during the first day out of the womb. "She's really not that hungry yet. She'll set her own feeding schedule. Feed her when she's hungry."

She also advised Bladow to take her calcium supplements, drink plenty of milk and try to resist using a pacifier to comfort her baby.

"I usually discourage a pacifier, because it becomes a bad habit," she warned.

Wogec, who has practiced just about every type of nursing, brings a personal touch to her work as a lactation consultant. She raised six children, and now they have children, and their children are having children. Everyone gets the same advice about breast-feeding, she says:

"It's the best thing you can do for your baby."

Wogec's white coat is decorated with pins representing the many milestones in her nursing life. Her favorite is a silver replica of an infant's feet.

"I've done it all," says Wogec, a widow who loves to travel and dotes on her border collie, Cupcake, and her tuxedo cat, Oreo. But her current job, she says, just may be her favorite.

"I'm doing something that I love to do, and I'm making a difference," she said. "This is where I belong."

Call The Bee's Cynthia Hubert, (916) 321-1082.