Answer:
Explanation:
Most of Snow’s obstetric patients underwent normal delivery of newborns, half delivering of their first child. Associated medical problems included advanced pulmonary tuberculosis in one patient and osteosarcoma of the shoulder in another. The patient died within a few days of delivery of the newborn. Obstetric problems included abnormal presentations (elbow, shoulder, and a footling breech), retained placenta, and postpartum hemorrhage. On several occasions, Snow used chloroform to relax the uterus for an internal cephalic version or to facilitate manual extraction of the placenta. He also used chloroform to treat hyperemesis gravidarum. Snow described administering anesthesia for nine forceps deliveries, a low incidence in view of frequent descriptions of prolonged labor and cephalopelvic disproportion in the nineteenth-century medical literature. He resuscitated several infants, one by “dashing cold water” and another by blowing “a little air into its lungs.” Snow never mentioned administering an anesthetic for a cesarean section, but this too was in accord with existing standards of care. Because of the exceptionally high mortality rates, physicians reserved this operation for women already near death
