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Background: Complex congenital heart disease (CCHD) refers to structural cardiac abnormalities requiring intervention in the first weeks of life. Narcotic analgesic use coupled with potential untreated surgical pain puts infants with CCHD at risk for long term neurocognitive impairment. Moderate massage decreases pain, depression, and anxiety in children. However, the effect of massage on postoperative pain in infants is unknown. Maternal anxiety may affect infant pain. Relationships between maternal anxiety and pain in infants with CCHD have not been reported. Aim: To examine relationships among moderate massage, maternal anxiety, and post-operative pain scores in infants with CCHD. Methods: This study was a two-group randomized controlled trial of 60 infants who either received 30 minutes of massage or quiet time (comparison group). Parental anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and infant pain was measured using the Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability (FLACC) Pain Assessment Tool. Statistical analysis was composed of two independent sample t-tests and group based trajectory modeling. Results: Groups did not differ on any of the characteristics or study variables, excluding pain scores on day two, where the massage group had significantly higher pain scores. The pain trajectory model revealed 16.79% of infants had initial high scores that gradually dropped. These infants had mothers with higher anxiety, were in the massage group, and were male. The narcotic model revealed 15.00% of infants exhibited an inverted U shape over the duration of the study. These infants had mothers with higher maternal anxiety, were in the massage group, and had more severe disease. Implications: Our findings reveal that there may be a subset of infants with CHD for whom postoperative moderate massage is not an effective non-pharmacological pain intervention. The quiet time condition may have acted as an intervention in which infants used their own regulatory processes to manage physiological stress. Increased levels of maternal anxiety may have been related to increased infant pain scores and subsequent narcotic administration in postoperative CHD infants. Further examination is needed to determine the impact of moderate massage on the postoperative infant. Nurses working with these vulnerable infants may consider addressing maternal anxiety as a noninvasive and nonpharmacological intervention to reduce pain in the infant following surgery.