Effect of Hand and Foot Massage on Vital Signs of women after caesarean section

Assessment of vital signs is essential in determining the patient's health status. Change in vital signs can be the symptoms of the body's response to physical and psychological stress or changes in physiological functioning of the body. The massage-therapy helps to the improvement of nervous and car­diovascular system and cause a feeling of well­being, relaxation and comfort in the patient. Therefore, this study was performed with aim to determine the effect of massage on vital signs of women after cesarean section.
This clinical trial was performed on 80 women referred to Mashhad Omolbanin hospital in 2013. The participants were randomly divided into two intervention and control groups. The intervention was hand and foot massage which was conducted by researcher for 20 minutes on the hands and feet of women after cesarean section each for 5 minutes in the women's surgical ward. Then their vital signs were measured using a mercury sphygmomanometer and counting pulse and respiration were measured before and immediately, 60 and 90 minutes after the intervention. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16) and Mann-Whitney, Chi-square, analysis of variance with repeated measures, and Paired t-test.
Hand and foot massage caused significant decrease in vital signs, so that mean number of breathing (P=0.03), pulse (P =0.003) and blood pressure (P =0.02) showed significant difference before and after massage (immediately, 60 and 90 minutes).
Hand and foot massage improves the womenʹ vital signs after caesarean section that can indicate relaxation and reducing stress on them.