Cesarean section

“In the case of the cesarean, the differential in success rates between city and community hospitals persisted well into the 1920s, due largely to the deficiency of postgraduate medical education. The diffusion of surgical knowledge that allowed the safe practice of cesarean operations in smaller hospitals occurred only with the institution of organized surgical residency programs in American medical schools by the close of the 1930s. . . . Such improvements appear to have increased the success of cesarean operations by 1940” (Ryan, 493).