Norman Morris

Norman Frederick Morris (26 February 1920 – 29 February 2008) was a British pioneer of women's health.

Morris was born in 1920 in Luton.

His father Frederick was a shop steward for NALGO; his mother Evelyn was a teacher.

He was head boy of Dunstable Grammar School and was selected by Lord Moran to become a medical student at St Mary's Hospital Medical School.

He qualified there in 1943, MRCS and LRCP.

At St Mary's, Morris was taught and guided by the gynaecologist and medical reformer Aleck Bourne.

He held junior posts in obstetrics and gynaecology at St Mary's. He was first assistant at Hammersmith Hospital, where he worked from 1950 from 1952.

He became reader at University College Hospital, where he was quite in sympathy with the ideas of William Nixon.

In 1954 Morris gave a talk "Psychosomatic reactions in Obstetrics and Gynaecology", attended by William Nixon, to the Alfred Adler Medical Society in London, a group of medical practitioners.

In 1957, Morris had a National Birthday Trust Fund grant to survey European maternity services.

He was a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School (1958–1985) and was also a university administrator.

In 1958, he was appointed professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, the first clinical professor at Charing Cross Hospital.

At Charing Cross Morris developed a clinical and basic science research programme.

He was the first obstetrician to introduce fathers to the labour ward.

He built a labour ward without the traditional first stage and second stage rooms.

According to Murray Enkin's biographer Kerreen Reiger, "Morris was a leader in implementing organisational changes to support humanistic childbirth and the first president of ISPOG.".

Staff were encouraged to attend Balint-style departmental meetings, in other words managed dialogues with caseworkers.

Morris worked closely with Emanuel Lewis, a psychiatrist and pediatrician Hugh Jolly.

Jolly, Lewis and Sandford Bourne argued for a better psychological approach in medical practice after stillbirths.

A symposium paper by Morris from the end of 1958, "A Surgeon's View of Gynaecological Disorders in General Practice", began with the words "I think it is now generally appreciated that a great number of the gynaecological symptoms of which women complain are psychogenic in origin."

It followed a Royal College of Physicians conference in May of that year, on The Nature of Stress Disorder, attended by Morris, and with proceedings published by the Society for Psychosomatic Research.

He was a founder member in 1962 of the International Society of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology (ISPOG).

In 1966 Morris wrote of later becoming "Aleck Bourne's house-surgeon, registrar and friend."

After qualification, Morris worked in Amersham and then in the East End of London.

The first water birth was carried out at Charing Cross in the 1970s.

Frédérick Leboyer came from France to work with Morris, who was also in contact with Michel Odent.

From 1971 to 1980, he was dean of medicine, and then deputy vice-chancellor at the University of London.

Morris became known as a reforming obstetrician who emphasised a psychosomatic approach.

Morris retired from the National Health Service (NHS) in 1985.

He became medical director of the in vitro fertilisation unit at Cromwell Hospital, where he was from 1986 and 1997.

He was the director of the Commonwealth Health secretariat.

At age 80, he established postgraduate courses for the MRCS and the MRCP.

He continued to work until his death in 2008.

Norman Morris died at the Wellington Hospital, London on 29 February 2008, after a short illness.

He was buried in Hoop Lane Cemetery.

His life was celebrated at the Royal College of Obstetricians on 25 September 2008; speakers included politician Tony Benn, and diplomat Emeka Anyaoku.

Lucilla Poston spoke on his work as a researcher.

The eulogy was read by Australian actor and comedian Barry Humphries (in the guise of Dame Edna Everage).

Morris's initial research interest was hypertension in pregnancy.

He published a series of papers on uterine blood flow and was the first obstetrician to show that there was reduced blood flow in the uterus in women who subsequently developed pre-eclampsia.