Dr. Jack Newman graduated from the University of Toronto medical school in 1970, interning at the Vancouver General Hospital. He did his training in paediatrics in Quebec City and at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto from 1977-1981, to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada in 1981 as well as Board Certified by the AAP in 1981. He has worked as a physician in Central America, New Zealand and South Africa. He founded the first hospital based breastfeeding clinic in Canada in 1984. He has been a consultant for UNICEF for the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, evaluating the first Baby Friendly Hospitals in Gabon, the Ivory Coast and Canada.

Dr. Newman was a staff paediatrician at the Hospital for Sick Children emergency department from 1983 to 1992, and was, for a period of time the acting chief of the emergency services. However, once the breastfeeding clinic started functioning, it took more and more of his time, and he eventually worked full time helping mothers and babies succeed with breastfeeding. He now works in several clinics around the city of Toronto.

Dr. Newman has several publications on breastfeeding, and in 2000 published a help guide for professionals and mothers on breastfeeding, called, Dr. Jack Newman's Guide to Breastfeeding in Canada (revised edition, January 2003), and The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers in the US.