الفهرس 
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Abstract
For most women and families, labor and birth is a time of excitement and anticipation, along with uncertainty, anxiety, and fear. Giving birth represents a major transition in a woman’s life- not only is she becoming a mother, she will also be growing and learning throughout the process.
For centuries laboring women chose to remain mobile and upright, using positions such as walking, standing, sitting, kneeling, hands and knees, or squatting. Today immobility throughout the labor process has become a common occurrence for many childbearing women. Increased medical management, obesity, lack of patient understanding about the importance of movement to facilitate labor progress, as well as lack of nursing understanding are all factors that have contributed to immobility. Amniotomy, oxytocin induction, fetal monitoring, and epidural anesthesia are interventions that can interfere with movement and position changes, necessitating immobility during labor.
Walking during labor has many benefits. It may facilitates progress of labor by stimulating more effective contractions, increases pressure of the presenting part against the cervix to facilitate effacement and dilatation, and promotes fetal rotation and descent. Walking also may helps to reduce the total time of first stage of labor, because it keeps the pelvis moving to help the baby find the best way through. Walking is a self-regulated, low technology care measure that does not engender any additional health care costs. It may have an important place in helping labor remain physiologic. Despite of these, the effect of maternal position or walking on progress of labor remains unclear, and many women continue to deliver in the traditional recumbent position.