"He became the first anesthesiologist to experiment with the segmental epidural; he pinpointed exactly which portion of the spine needed to be anesthetized during labor... He became an outspoken advocate for expertise in obstetric anesthesiology, complaining in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1985 that it was an old custom to assign the least experienced anesthetist and the most antiquated equipment to the maternity ward. ...he observed that interns, residents, and nurses with no training were often ordered to administer anesthesia in delivery rooms at the last minute, a situation that would never be tolerated in the operating room. Bonica urged the creation of twenty-four-hour anesthesia services dedicated to maternity wards, unheard of then, but fairly routine today."