This site has been permanently archived. This is a static copy provided by the University of Southampton.

%A Dr. Mark B. Kristal %A Alexis C. Thompson %A P. Abbott %A Jean M. DiPirro %A E.J. Ferguson %A J. C. Doerr %J Life Sciences %T Amniotic-fluid ingestion by parturient rats enhances pregnancy-mediated analgesia %X 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. %N 10 %K placentophagia, POEF, amniotic fluid, analgesia, pain, delivery, parturition, rat %P 693-698 %V 46 %D 1990 %I Pergamon Press %L cogprints5769