%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

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