A quasi experimental design was used, 66 infants were recruited from two uni-versity hospitals with tertiary level NICUs; 32 infants received the massage therapy by theirmothers. Data collection by a researcher blind to the infants’ group assignments includedweight at discharge, pain responses on the PIPP scale at discharge, length of stay in hospi-tal, neuro-developmental outcome (Bayley scores) and breastfeeding duration at 12 monthscorrected age.