Walking is okay during early labor.

In the largest study of its kind, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas scientists have concluded that walking during the first stage of labor is neither harmful nor beneficial to the mother or baby. According to Steven Bloom, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, women should be allowed to walk or remain in bed during the first stage of labor, whichever is most comfortable for them. Current obstetrics practice dictates that a woman should lie down during labor, but patients sometimes want to walk around, hoping to find comfort in motion.

Bloom and his colleagues assigned 1,067 women at Dallas' Parkland Memorial Hospital in spontaneous labor with uncomplicated pregnancies between 36 and 41 weeks' gestation to either a walking group or a bed-rest group. Seventy-eight percent of those assigned to the walking group actually walked; the rest had quicker labors, which may have precluded them from doing so...