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@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.} }