@misc{cogprints5769,
          volume = {46},
          number = {10},
          author = {Dr. Mark B. Kristal and Alexis C. Thompson and P. Abbott and Jean M. DiPirro and E.J. Ferguson and J. C. Doerr},
           title = {Amniotic-fluid ingestion by parturient rats enhances pregnancy-mediated analgesia},
       publisher = {Pergamon Press},
         journal = {Life Sciences},
           pages = {693--698},
            year = {1990},
        keywords = {placentophagia, POEF, amniotic fluid, analgesia, pain, delivery, parturition, rat},
             url = {http://cogprints.org/5769/},
        abstract = {Amniotic fluid and placenta contain a substance (POEF, for Placental Opioid-Enhancing Factor) that, when ingested, enhances opioid-mediated analgesia in nonpregnant rats; ingestion of the substance by rats not experiencing opioid-mediated analgesia, however, does not produce analgesia. It is highly likely that periparturitional analgesia-enhancement is a significant benefit of ingestion of the afterbirth (placentophagia) during delivery. Here we report that prepartum ingestion of amniotic fluid (via orogastric infusion) does indeed enhance the endogenous-opioid-mediated analgesia evident at the end of pregnancy and during delivery; that the degree of enhancement is greater with 0.75 ml than with 0.25 ml, and that the prepartum enhancement of analgesia can be blocked with the opioid antagonist naloxone.}
}

<script src="//archive-bar.soton.ac.uk/archive-bar.js"></script>