Pain during the labor active phase: The effect of walking

Abstract

This study aimed to verify whether the distance walked is correlated with women's pain level throughout the active phase of labor. Methodology: We realized an analytic, quasi-experimental intervention study. Study participants were 80 primiparous parturient women, who were admitted during spontaneous labor, with 37-42 weeks, at the start of the active phase. Data analysis: Spearman's correlation test. Results: the parturient women walked an average distance of 1,624 meters, 63.09% of the active phase of labor and during an average time of five hours. Pain scores increase along with the advance in cervical dilatation. However, we only found a significant positive correlation when 5cm of dilatation had been reached, that is, the more distance the participants walked, the higher the pain scores they reached.