Jack Newman’s Clinic has new location
Dr. Jack Newman, well known for his support for breastfeeding women, has found a new home for his clinic. Now located at the Canadian College of Neuropathic Medicine in North York, Toronto, Dr. Newman, clinic founder and pediatrician, was the first in Canada to start a hospital-based breastfeeding clinic in1984 at the Hospital for Sick Children. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of INFACT Canada since 1985. Newman’s working experience straddles the globe, from Latin America to Africa. These experiences have afforded him a wealth of first hand knowledge of breastfeeding cultures and practice. Since then he has become a highly sought after speaker on breastfeeding topics.
In December 2005, North York General Hospital shut down Newman’s popular support clinic, citing space and resource shortages. Each year, the Newman clinic helps nearly 3,000 mothers overcome breastfeeding problems.
The Newman Breastfeeding Clinic and Institute are now located at 1255 Sheppard Avenue East, Toronto, just steps from the Leslie subway station.
Clinic closures in Ontario have finally caught the attention of one MPP thanks to considerable activism by a number of concerned parties. NDP Health critic, Shelly Martel, in a letter to Ontario’s Minister of Health Promotion, Jim Watson urges him to take a lead role
"to develop a provincial strategy to truly support mothers and newborns with breast-feeding."
Ms. Martel notes a number of gaps in services available to breastfeeding mothers.
Citing the closure Breastfeeding Clinics such as the one at the Brantford General Hospital one year ago, Martel wrote, "This clinic provided the only publicly accessible service to women needing professional breast-feeding help in Brantford and Brant County." She noted that this is not the only clinic closed: "Clinics have also closed in Sarnia and at St. Michael’s Hospital and the Humber River Regional Hospital in Toronto and also the specialized breast-feeding services provided by Jack Newman which were available at North York General Hospital."
More gaps exist in the public health unit system where some health units may have funding for a lactation consultant but many do not. And where no such service exists, new mothers may have to pay privately for such expertise—and this cost can be prohibitive for parents.
Lastly, gaps also exist "in the hospital system itself where, despite a Coroner’s Jury recommendation in l997, that all Ontario hospitals providing obstetrical services be encouraged to establish breast-feeding clinics in their hospitals; that every hospital in Ontario have at least one lactation consultant on staff; and, to increase expertise in breast-feeding, hospitals should provide financial assistance to nursing staff to upgrade their skills in breast-feeding techniques. Instead, there are recent examples of hospitals closing their outpatient breast-feeding clinics and I suspect a survey of hospitals regarding lactation consultants or even support for nurses to expand their skills in breast-feeding, would reveal how little progress has been made since l997."