Methods	Quasi-randomised trial.
Participants	200 women randomised. Inclusion criteria - women with a single fetus of at least 37 weeks’ gestation; vertex presentation and no contraindication to vaginal birth; in spontaneous labour with uterine contractions occurring at least every 10 mins and a cervix at least 2.5 cm dilated. Exclusion criteria - women who had previously suffered a stillbirth or neonatal death or who had undergone a caesarean section
Interventions	Intervention: Ambulation with telemetry monitoring (women advised that they could get of bed to walk, sit in an easy chair or use the day room). Intervention group - ambulant women monitored with telemetry (n = 100). Comparison group - conventional cardiotocography (women nursed in bed) (n = 100). All women - all patients in bed were nursed in the lateral position or with a lateral tilt
Outcomes	Length of first stage. Type of delivery. Woman’s pain. Analgesia. Length of second stage. Apgar < 7 at 5 mins.
Notes	Telemetry group: 45% elected to get out of bed (and then only for short periods); average time out of bed = 1 hour 44 mins (range - 3 mins to 4 hours 20 mins) which was 30% of the monitored first stage of labour; 34 (75%) of those who left their beds initially elected to stay in bed by the time they reached a cervical dilatation of 7 cm
Risk of bias
Item	Authors’ judgement	Description
Adequate sequence generation?	No	Described as ‘Final digit of hospital number (odd or even)’.
Allocation concealment?	No	Described as ‘Final digit of hospital number (odd or even)’.
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.