http://cogprints.org/5769/
Amniotic-fluid ingestion by parturient rats enhances pregnancy-mediated analgesia
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.
Kristal, Dr. Mark B.
Thompson, Alexis C.
Abbott, P.
DiPirro, Jean M.
Ferguson, E.J.
Doerr, J. C.
Psychobiology
Neuropharmacology
Behavioral Neuroscience
Mark B.
Kristal
Alexis C.
Thompson
P.
Abbott
Jean M.
DiPirro
E.J.
Ferguson
J. C.
Doerr