This study was designed to investigate the effect of delivery nursing care using essential oils on labor stress response, labor anxiety and postpartum status anxiety for primipara.

This study used nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The subjects of this experiment consisted of forty eight primipara with single gestation, full term, & uncomplicated pregnancies. Twenty four primipra were in the experimental and control group each. Their mean age was 27.9 years old, their mean gestation period 279.9 days. As a treatment, delivery nursing care using essential oils was applied by nurses. Data collected epinephrine, norepinephrine, anxiety during labor. In the 24 hours after birth, the data for the postpartum mother's status anxiety was collected. Data was analyzed by t-test, repeated measures ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U test, & Wilcoxon signed ranks test with SPSS Program.

Plasma epinephrine, norepinephrine were significantly low in the experimental group (P=0.001, P=0.033, respectively). There was no significant difference between the two groups in anxiety during labor and postpartum mother's status anxiety.

These findings indicate that delivery nursing care using essential oils could be effective in decreasing plasma epinephrine, norepinephrine. But, that could not be verified in decreasing mother's anxiety.

The purpose of this study was to identify effects of the SP-6 acupressure on dysmenorrhea, and level of cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine in the college students.

Data were collected from May 1 to August 31, 2002. A total of 58 students from two universities participated in the study. Both groups were pretested before the intervention for three variables, the intensity of dysmenorrhea, level of cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine. Then, SP-6 acupressure was provided for 20 minutes for students in the experimental group. The instruments used in this study included the Visual Analogue Scale developed by Johnson(1974), Menstrual Attitudes Questionnaire Scale developed by Brooks-Gunn & Ruble(1980), and Stress scale developed by Cheun and Kim(1990).

There were statistically significant differences in the intensity of dysmenorrhea at the time immediately after, 30minutes after, one hour after, and two hours after the intervention. The experimental group had a lower intensity than the control group. There was a statistically significant difference in level of norepinephrine at the time 30minutes after the intervention with the experimental group.

The SP-6 acupressure reduced the subjective perception of dysmenorrhea and the levels of norepinephrine. It was found out that the lasting period of 20 minutes of the SP-6 acupressure was two hours for college students.