World-renowned pediatrician and breastfeeding specialist, Dr. Jack Newman is facing another clinic closure. Here in Toronto, The North York General Hospital Clinic’s closure comes on the heels of the Humber River Regional Hospital and St. Michael’s Hospital’s clinic closures, over the past two years.
According to the Globe and Mail article today, Glenn Berall, chief of pediatrics at North York General, said the hospital is closing the clinic so it can expand neonatal programs for its inpatients. What’s amazing to me is how they can just decide to remove the clinic, which is only open one day a week.
Obviously times haven’t changed. When I gave birth to Mad it was (not by choice) in a hospital. Naturally I was appreciative of the staff as they were there when we needed them but I do recall being treated like a vagina with a baby and once that baby was out and declared fit to live I didn’t hear or see of them again. Other than an orderly, the woman who takes the newborn hospital pictures and overcharges for them and one nurse who came in for about a minute and a half to discharge us I didn’t receive any extra assistance, I was on my own. I couldn’t understand when Mad was hungry let alone remember how to feed her. Thankfully three and a half years ago Dr. Newman’s clinics were still all open and when Mad started to lose weight I didn’t have to wait more than a day to get an appointment. The meeting was quick, to the point and the room was filled with people dying to learn from Dr. Newman. He was thoughtful and considerate to our circumstance and made himself personally available by email, and he meant it. The man is dedicated.
The above mentioned Globe and Mail article made note of Dr. Newman’s expertise but found the need to remark on a comment about his “abruptness” and may have suggested the closings had something to do with it. Either way the article ended negatively and it rubbed me the wrong way, so aftrer reading it, I wrote a letter to the editor:
Dear Sir,
Am I correct to assume that this article is suggesting that the breastfeeding clinic may have been shut down due to Dr. Newman’s abruptness? Ending the article by stating the other cutbacks and closures while mentioning Dr. Newman’s candour certainly does to me.
Dr. Newman is a pediatrician, author and breastfeeding guru yet he still makes the precious moments to help every woman whether it be with a quick email or a rushed clinic appointment. I know first hand as he helped me with my difficulty breastfeeding my first child. Responses were quick but so was the diagnosis. Dr. Newman knows what he is talking about and through the clinics is able to pass on his knowledge to other lactation consultants in residence. The information that he laid upon me allowed me to breastfeed my daughter successfully for as long as I wanted. He gave me confidence when beginning again with my son and pass on information to encourage other mothers.
It still amazes me that in this day and age the difficulty new mothers must face not only in adjusting to motherhood but overcoming the taboo of breastfeeding as well. As we’re no longer living in a communal society, so much of the information and support for new mothers once handed down is lost, leaving most parents to fend for themselves.
Dr. Newman is committed to helping mothers breastfeed and should be commended not shut down. Dr. Newman is not abrupt, he is a busy, one man army trying to work from these clinics to help and teach others. Where there is already a lack of support there is soon to be less and I feel your article should be focusing more on that. Your article had the opportunity to create a positive awareness about the situation, yet your article found the need to take an obtuse turn about one person’s comments.
I’m not going to say that I L O V E breastfed baby poop. But if we’re 
