Care Practice 2: Laboring Women Should Be Free to Move Throughout Labor
Adapted from The Official Lamaze Guide: Giving Birth with Confidence.

Moving in labor serves two very important purposes. First, it helps you cope with increasingly strong and painful contractions, which signals your body to keep labor going. Second, it helps gently wiggle your baby into your pelvis and through your birth canal.

• Download the Lamaze Care Practice Paper to learn more about the importance of movement in labor.
  • Also available as a PDF in English,Spanish, Russian and Mandarin.
• Learn some tips for maintaining freedom of movement in labor.
• Discover how to keep your birth as normal as possible if your movement is restricted.
• Watch a video of normal births to see how movement is used throughout labor.