Introduction:
Caesarean section, due to delivery and operating room and anaesthesia as well as well-known complications for the patient, can cause anxiety in patients, and this anxiety creates physical problems for the patient.

Aim of the research:
To investigate the effects of relaxation therapy on decreasing anxiety in patients with elective caesarean section.

Material and methods:
This clinical trial was conducted on 90 pregnant women (45 persons in each of two groups), aged 20 to 35 years old, who underwent elective caesarean section in Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ahvaz, Iran during 2016. In the muscle relaxation intervention group, progressive relaxation was performed for 20–25 min. These activities were performed every hour for a total of four times before the surgery. For the control group, neutral contents (e.g. benefits of vegetables and fruits) that were prepared as pamphlets were distributed, and no other intervention was performed. The data were collected using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A).

Results:
The results showed that explicit anxiety in the intervention group was significantly lower than in the control group, but the groups did not show any significant difference in implicit anxiety. However, relaxation therapy decreased total anxiety in pregnant women prior to caesarean section. Regarding anxiety after caesarean section, the condition was similar, and this technique could decrease implicit anxiety and total anxiety of women. In addition, both groups showed no significant difference between the anxiety pre- and post caesarean section, indicating that the anxiety of women continued after caesarean section.

Conclusions:
The findings showed that relaxation therapy decreases anxiety levels of pregnant women under caesarean section and can be used to decrease stress and anxiety of mothers.