Frank Eyvind Hytten

Frank Eyvind Hytten was a pioneer of physiological research in pregnancy and lactation and a key contributor to the promotion of scientific attitudes and improved research and clinical practice in obstetrics. Frank was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, but his family moved to Sydney during his childhood. He started his qualified career in Sydney with residencies in obstetrics and gynaecology, followed by the award of a prestigious three year Walter and Eliza Hall travelling research fellowship to study research methods abroad. This enabled him to spend time in Aberdeen and Boston (USA), returning to Sydney for the final year. His interests were initially in the newborn, focusing on lactation and breastfeeding. When he returned to Aberdeen in the early 1950s, this research continued, but by the time (1954) he had joined the permanent scientific staff of Sir Dugald Baird’s Medical Research Council (MRC) Obstetric Medicine Research Unit (OMRU), what he referred to as his “meandering trail career path” had led him to focus on maternal physiology in pregnancy, a much neglected research area. Perhaps it was no coincidence that the term “obstetric medicine” had already been coined, with the acronym OMRU becoming famous worldwide.

It was while Frank was in Aberdeen that he and Isabella Leitch (an animal nutritionist) undertook a systematic search and analysis of the literature, which led in 1964 to publication of the 1first edition of their classic book The Physiology of Human Pregnancy. This substantial volume (a “bible” to many) was recognised as a model of scholarship, and its content, style, analysis, and predictions eclipsed all previous publications. The concepts set out by Hytten and Leitch may have been the first guides to rigorous investigation of human pregnancy. A major message was that gestational maternal physiological changes were to benefit the fetus not the mother, …