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The researchers found that the massage group showed significant improvements over the control group. At the end of the 10-day study period the babies who received massage averaged 28% greater weight gain per day (33g as opposed to 26g in the control group) even though both the dietary volume and calorific intakes were the same in both groups. The babies in the massage group also showed significantly fewer post-natal complications and stress behaviours than the control group, and they also demonstrated more mature motor skills.

This study gives a fascinating insight into the physiological benefits of massage therapy for premature cocaine-exposed babies. It seems that as little as three fifteen minute sessions of massage over a 10 day period can make a dramatic difference to a baby's development and effectively reduce the main problems associated with cocaine exposure. The study indicates that massage therapy may have an increasingly significant role to play in paediatric medicine.
Massage used in post-delivery care on neonatal body temperature
Doctors at the at Kathmandu Maternity Hospital recently demonstrated that massage may play a valuable role in helping maintain babies body temperatures immediately after birth. The researchers first carried out a prospective observational study of post-delivery care and neonatal body temperature and then followed it with a randomised controlled intervention study using three simple methods used to help maintain the babies’ body temperatures.
Five hundred infants were monitored in the initial observation study and three hundred in the intervention study. In the observation study, 85% of infants had temperatures less than 36 degrees C at 2 hours following the birth and nearly 50% still had temperatures less than 36 degrees C at 24 hours after the birth.
Most of the infants who were cold after 24 hours had initially become cold at the time of delivery (incredibly, only seven infants had been both well dried and wrapped). In the intervention study, all infants were dried and wrapped before random assignment to one of the three methods: the "kangaroo" method, the traditional "oil massage" or a "plastic swaddler". All three methods were found to be equally effective. Overall, 38% of the infants had temperatures less than 36 degrees C at 2 hours and less than 18% ( at 24 hours.
Predicting which preterm infants benefit most from massage therapy
Researchers at the Department of Paediatrics, University of Miami School of Medicine studied ninety-three preterm infants; the mean gestational age of the infants was 30 weeks; the mean birth weight, 1204 g, and mean duration in the intensive care was 15 days. All of the babies were randomly assigned to either a massage therapy group or a control group as soon as they were considered medically stable.
The fifty babies in the treatment group received three daily 15-minute massages for 10 days. The massage therapy infants gained significantly more weight per day than the infants in the control group (32grams compared to 29 grams). All of the babies in the treatment and control groups were divided into high and low weight gainers based on the average weight gain for the control group. Seventy per cent of the massage therapy infants were classified as high weight gainers whereas only forty per cent of the control infants were classified as high weight gainers. 
A closer inspection of the records revealed that the babies who needed the most help (ie. those infants who had experienced more complications before the study began) actually benefited more from the massage therapy. Using those parametres, the researchers accurately predicted that seventy eight per cent of the infants would benefit significantly from the massage therapy. Thus, they concluded from the results, that it was possible to to identify those infants who would benefit most from future massage therapy programs.