Pregnant women benefit from massage therapy

Twenty-six pregnant women were assigned to a massage therapy or a relaxatio n therapy group for 5 weeks. The therapies consisted of 20-min sessions twi ce a week. Both groups reported feeling less anxious after the first sessio n and less leg pain after the first and last session. Only the massage ther apy group, however reported reduced anxiety, improved mood, better sleep an d less back pain by the last day of the study. In addition, urinary stress hormone levels (norepinephrine) decreased for the massage therapy group and the women had fewer complications during labor and their infants had fewer postnatal complications (e.g., less prematurity).