The randomised control trial was conducted at Shahid Hasheminejad Hospital, Mashhad, Iran, between January
and November 2014. After getting approval from the Ethical Committee for Reseach, Gonabad Medical University, and informed written consent by the parents,newborns in the hospital NICU were selected and randomly allocated into Massage and Control groups. In accordance with similar research results we expected the difference in bilirubin level in both groups on the 4th day of intervention to be 2mg/deciliter (x1 =11.97, x2=9.92, S1=1.52, S2=1.30) and the total variance of the groups to stand at 4. Therefore, according to the formula used in comparative studies for two independent mean populations, the sample size was estimated at 13 neonates for each group at 90% power with a 2-sided significance level of α=0.05. Further, by taking into account the experience of the researchers which shows that many newborns need phototherapy on day 4 after birth, it was decided to increase the number of subjects in each group so as to have ample amount of sample remaining after day 4