The Brockporter Thought For The Day - Another side of the story about Lakeside

In response to your article about breast pumps - I can't believe you are holding a 40 year-old grudge.

I will take at least partial credit for the fact that ~ 25 years ago Lakeside became a nationally recognized "Baby Friendly" hospital for promoting breast feeding.  While I was the first at Lakeside to do deliveries in the labor room, long before the renovations of the OB suite did away with the OR-based delivery rooms, most babies were delivered in bed rather than on a sterile table up in stirrups.

Over the years, I was joined by other Family Physicians and a number of midwives who, along with increasingly modern Obstetricians, practiced humane, family-centered obstetrics.  The Lakeside OB unit won a national award for quality.  I am extremely proud of the professional nurses who supported me and the laboring patients.

I am sure I could get a couple-hundred testimonials to the loving way my patients were treated as they delivered at Lakeside over the last 30 years.

It is attitudes like yours -- refusing to acknowledge growth, change, and improvement -- that have led to the slow destruction of a noble and worth-while community institution.

David M. Newman, MD