Methods	Randomised trial.
Participants	196 women. Inclusion criteria: women in spontaneous established labour (presence of regular contractions less than 10 mins apart and cervical dilatation of 3 cm or more) with a singleton fetus in a cephalic presentation between 37 and 42 weeks’ gestation who had the ability to ambulate in labour. Exclusion criteria: women undergoing intravenous therapy, with hypertension (> 90 mmHg diastolic blood pressure), epidural or narcotic analgesia at or before entry to trial, evidence of possible fetal distress, previous prostaglandin treatment, induced labour and a physical inability to ambulate
Interventions	Intervention group: ambulate as desired (n = 96). Women were encouraged to ambulate but were also given the option of sitting or lying down when they wished. Comparison group: recumbent. Most women chose a semi-recumbent posture with the head end of the bed at 45 degrees but they could also be on their side with lower elevation of the head. After entry to the trial, all women had an artificial rupture of the membranes if they had not already spontaneously ruptured
Outcomes	Type of delivery. Analgesia. Augmentation. Apgar. Admission to NICU.
Notes
Risk of bias
Item	Authors’ judgement	Description
Adequate sequence generation?	Yes	Described as ‘Balanced variable blocks with stratification by parity’
Allocation concealment?	Yes	Opaque, sealed envelopes.
Blinding? Women	No	Not feasible.
Blinding? Clinical staff	No	Not feasible.
Blinding? Outcome assessor	Unclear	Not stated.
Incomplete outcome data addressed? All outcomes	Yes	No losses to follow up.