Ina Mae Gaskin

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Biography

• Born on March 8, 1940
• 1971 – Founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center located near Summertown, Tennessee
• 1996-2002 President of Midwives’ Alliance of North America (MANA)
• 2003 – Visiting Fellow of Morse College, Yale University
• 2009 – Honorary Doctor by the Faculty of Health and Human Sciences of Thames Valley University, London
• 2011 – Right Livelihood Award for her ‘life’s work teaching and advocating safe, woman-centred childbirth methods that best promote the physical and mental health of mother and child‘

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Medical Eponyms

Gaskin (all-fours) manoeuvre

Gaskin adopted the all-fours manoeuvre for shoulder dystocia from indigenous midwives while visiting the highlands of Guatemala in 1976. Gaskin first documented the manoeuvre in the second edition of Spiritual Midwifery (1977), and expanded in an informal article on a series of shoulder dystocias in which the maneuver had proven to be extremely effective (1988).

This position works very well to widen the pelvis in just the way that is required when the shoulders are stuck: instead of the mother’s coccyx being pushed towards the symphysis pubis in the way it is in the seated position, there is no pressure on the coccyx and the baby’s weight is pushing on the symphysis pubis, thereby widening the anterior to posterior diameter a little.

Gaskin 2002: 354

1991 – Gaskin collaborated with family physicians to publish a formal review 32 cases of shoulder dystocia, all of which had been resolved with the all-fours position.

1998 – Bruner et al analysed 82 consecutive cases of shoulder dystocia with 68 patients (83%) having successful delivery of the fetus with the Gaskin manoeuvre alone. Rates of maternal and neonatal morbidity were 1.2% and 4.9%, respectively [one case of maternal postpartum haemorrhage; one infant with a fractured humerus; and three neonates with low Apgar scores]. The average time needed to assume the all-fours position and complete delivery was 2-3 minutes.

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Major Publications

• Gaskin IM. Spiritual Midwifery. 1975
• Gaskin IM. Shoulder dystocia: controversies in management. Birth Gazette. 1988; 5: 14–17
• Meenan AL, Gaskin IM, Hunt P, Ball CA. A new (old) maneuver for the management of shoulder dystocia. J Fam Pract. 1991;32(6):625-629. [PDF]
• Bruner JP, Drummond SB, Meenan AL, Gaskin IM. All-fours maneuver for reducing shoulder dystocia during labor. J Reprod Med. 1998;43(5):439-443.
• Gaskin IM. Babies, breastfeeding, and bonding. 1987
• Gaskin IM. Ina May’s Guide to Breastfeeding. 2009
• Gaskin IM. Birth matters: a midwife’s manifesta. 2011
• Gaskin IM. Ina May’s guide to childbirth. 2012

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Eponymous Shoulder Dystocia management techniques

• McRoberts manoeuvre (1983)
• Woods Screw manoeuvre (1943)
• Rubin manoeuvre (1964)
• Gaskin (all-fours) manoeuvre (1977)
• Zavanelli manoeuvre (1978)

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References

Biography

• Baskett TF. Gaskin, Ina May. Eponyms and Names in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 3e. 2019: 150-151
• Bibliography. Gaskin, Ina May. WorldCat Identities

Eponymous terms

• Duran AM. The safety of home birth: the farm study. Am J Public Health. 1992;82(3):450-453
• Bruner JP, Drummond SB, Meenan AL, Gaskin IM. All-fours maneuver for reducing shoulder dystocia during labor. J Reprod Med. 1998 May;43(5):439-43

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