BACKGROUND:
Premature birth causes stress in postpartum women, especially when it is followed by separation from the critically ill child, as it constitutes an unpredictable and uncontrollable event.

OBJECTIVES:
To analyse the effect of using the Five Flowers essence on the stress level of mothers with premature children admitted to the Neonatal ICU of a public hospital in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

METHODS:
This is a controlled, triple-blind, randomized clinical trial with 117 postpartum women divided into an intervention group (56) and a control group (61). The predictor variables were the use of Floral Essence and placebo and the stress outcome variable, assessed using the “Parental Stress Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit” and cortisol hormone dosage. The intervention was carried out between 24 and 72 hours after delivery, between the 7th and 9th day and between the 12th and 14th day postpartum. For statistical tests, a significance level of 5% was considered.

RESULTS:
The Five Flower essence reduce the stress of postpartum women. The Intervention Group had lower stress scores when compared to the control group, and this difference was statistically significant (p=0,027). For cortisol, there were no effects for group (p=0,880), time (p=0,274) and interaction between time and group (p=0,659). However, the relative variations in cortisol by times of assessment, distinct patterns of cortisol fall were observed by group greater than 10%.In the Intervention group, there were higher percentages of falls above 10% (34,0% versus 15,6%; p=0,041, of 15% (31,9% versus 13,3%; p=0,034); 20% (29,8% versus 11,1%; p=0,027) and 25% (25,5% versus 8,9%; p=0,035) in evaluations 2 and 3.

CONCLUSIONS:
The Five Flower essence showed is effective in reducing stress and cortisol levels in mothers of premature children. This therapy can help to minimize the psychic impacts caused by early termination of pregnancy.

KEY MESSAGE:
1. Flower essences. 2. Premature newborn. 3. Phsychological Stress. Poster session 1 (Group A)