Obituary

Michael Edward Pawson MBBS (London), MRCS, LRCP, MRCOG, FRCOG

“Mike” to his friends and family

Michael Pawson, who was Chairman of the British Society of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynaecology 1995-96 and 1997-99 and served as the UK representative on the ISPOG Executive Committee, died on 9 November 2024 at the age of 87.  As a pioneer in exploring the psychosomatic aspects of infertility – how psychology and mental health affect pregnancy – he was instrumental in positioning ‘psychosomatics’ within mainstream clinical practice.

Mike qualified at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, in 1962 and obtained Membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (MRCOG) in 1970, then Fellowship (FRCOG) in 1983. He worked as a registrar under Norman Morris, who argued that doctors were failing to understand the emotional pressures on women going through childbirth and set out to change forever the experience of giving birth in a British hospital.

He became a consultant at Charing Cross Hospital, London, in 1972 and set up a dedicated fertility clinic there, one of the first such clinics: previously people who were infertile were seen in the general gynaecology clinic. Charing Cross Hospital also had the UK’s first gender clinic, and Mike did some gender-confirming surgery for its patients.

Subsequently, he was a consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital in London, where he was the first clinical director of the Assisted Conception Unit. He left this post in 1998. He was also clinical director of gynaecological services at the hospital for three years.

He was honorary senior lecturer at the Imperial College School of Medicine, University of London, and an examiner for the University of London, Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, the Central Midwives Board and the Conjoint Board of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons.

His publications include, Psychological Challenges in Obstetrics and Gynecology: The Clinical Management(Springer-Verlag, London, 2007) which he co-edited.

He was a member of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, the Medical Protection Society and on the Register of Expert Witnesses.

At school, a teacher had told him he would “never make a scientist”. The teacher would have been closer to the mark if they had said he would “never make a biomedical scientist”. Mike shunned the biomedical model of health care delivery and championed the holistic biopsychosocial model that integrates biological factors with psychological, emotional and social factors.

He said of his work: “What is it that makes a gynaecologist take up such a speciality and reflect on mortality and procreation? I am conscious that my motivation to do medicine and then to specialise in women’s health and well-being, initially in pregnancy and childbirth, was the positive and creative nature of producing a healthy baby. Probably a deeper and more complex reason was associated with the fact that I had no communication of any sort with my father from the age of 6. This made me interested in parenting and, having seen, understood and taken part in the care of pregnant women, I became aware of the pain of those who were unable to conceive”.

He is survived by his wife, three children and six grandchildren to whom ISPOG extends condolences as well as gratitude and appreciation of his legacy.