Moving Around During Labor

By Carolyn Rafferty

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Find more about pregnancy, labor, exercise, health, prenatal

From the Disney Family Editors: While a laboring mother generally has an instinct for what will make her the most comfortable, according to the author, this may not always coincide with the requirements of the medical facility or personnel at her providers. Prudence dictates checking beforehand to be sure you and your providers are on the same page about your ability to stay mobile during labor.

Your Question:
I would like to be able to move around during my labor, but my friends who have given birth recently tell me that the nurse made them get into bed right away. What if the nurse says that I have to stay in bed? Can I refuse to?

The Nurse Answers:
Many times when you come into a hospital for your labor it is expected by the medical team, your OB, midwife and nurse that your baby will be assessed prior to deciding what next actions are appropriate. This is usual and responsible care. One thing that will most likely be done is that you will be placed on the fetal monitor right away to get an initial tracing. The monitor is the most frequently used method of evaluating how often you are having contractions, how long they last and how the baby is responding to the contractions. This is the most likely cause for you being asked to get into bed right away.

Most hospitals have come to rely heavily on the electronic monitor over hands-on assessment. It probably has to do with wanting a physical tracing to document that everything is okay. Remember, a lot of what happens in obstetrics is based on the medical belief that something might go wrong at any moment rather than the belief that most women can give birth just fine without any intervention. Another motivation for continued electronic fetal monitoring is to have that document for evaluation if there is any question about how your care was managed based on any possible negative outcomes law suits).

That said, if you are experiencing "normal physiological birth," you went into labor on your own and you have no identified high risk factors (high blood pressure, post dates, gestational diabetes, etc.) then once that initial assessment is obtained and the baby and you are thought to be doing well, then you should be able to move around and be monitored intermittently. Some hospitals will use telemetry (a system of wireless monitoring while you move around). Some will use a hand-held doppler to listen periodically. Some will ask you to get back into bed once every hour or so to put you back on the monitor and obtain another electronic assessment of the baby and your contractions.

In health care you always have the right to refuse treatment but it is important that you are informed so that you can be confident you are making good decisions for you and your baby.

If you are being told that everything looks good and that your baby is doing okay with the contractions, then there really isn't any reason you should have to stay in one place and not move around. Many women find freedom of movement necessary to cope with discomforts of labor and women tend to intuitively know what position is best for them.

It is very important that you discuss these types of possible limitations on your labor choices prior to going into labor. It is crucial that you find out your health care provider's philosophy of "normal birth" and remain informed and "on the same page" with him/her throughout your prenatal and childbirth care. If you find you are not "on the same page" with your provider, you always have the right to find a new one. This is your baby, your body and your birth. Be wise, informed, and your own advocate. For further reading on provider relationships please visit www.motherfriendly.org/resources/10Q to read Having a Baby? 10 Questions to Ask.

Nurse and patient advocate Carolyn Rafferty, RN, BSN, can answer your childbirth questions! Send them to her here.

About the Author: Carolyn Rafferty is the mother of four children and two foster children as well as a labor and delivery nurse. Carolyn brings not only her professional medical knowledge to SheKnows.com but also her diverse personal childbearing experiences. She has had battles with infertility and miscarriage, and then experienced three natural childbirths and an emergent cesarean birth of a preterm baby who spent six weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She has experienced hospital birth and out of hospital-birth center birth both as a nurse and as a mother. Carolyn feels so strongly that maternity care should be more mother and baby friendly that she co-founded a national nursing organization to work toward that goal. She feels passionately that women can only have reproductive options if they are truly informed. She supports nurses that share her passion for patient advocacy by serving as the Executive Director of the Association of Nurse Advocates for Childbirth Solutions (www.anacs.org) and volunteering for the Coalition to Improve Maternity Services (CIMS)( www.motherfriendly.org.) You can e-mail her childbirth-related questions to CRaffertyRNBSN@sheknows.com.