<![CDATA[Background: Women preparing for caesarean section may experience psychological distress and transient cardiovascular arousal. Finger-hold relaxation and slow deep breathing are low-resource nursing approaches, but head-to-head comparative evidence in this population remains limited. Objective: To compare short-term changes in the total six-item Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS) score and systolic blood pressure following two relaxation approaches. Methods: A non-randomized, two-group pretest–posttest study enrolled 44 patients scheduled for elective caesarean section (22 per group). Finger-hold and slow deep breathing each lasted 15 minutes. Total APAIS score includes four anxiety and two information-need items. Within-group changes were assessed with paired t-tests; unadjusted changes between groups were compared using Mann–Whitney U tests. Change was defined as pretest minus posttest. Results: Mean total APAIS scores decreased from 16.32 to 10.82 in the finger-hold group and from 12.77 to 9.73 in the breathing group. Systolic blood pressure decreased from 127.23 to 117.41 and from 122.09 to 115.41 mmHg, respectively. Table-reported within-group p values were 0.001. The unadjusted between-group comparison was significant for total APAIS change (p=0.003), but not for systolic pressure change (p=0.119). Baseline total APAIS values differed between groups. Conclusion: Both approaches were associated with short-term score and pressure reductions. Baseline imbalance, non-randomized allocation and the absence of adjusted analyses preclude causal attribution or a conclusion that finger-hold is superior]]>
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