<![CDATA[Prolonged first-stage labor increases the risk of maternal exhaustion, fetal distress, and unnecessary medical intervention. One nonpharmacological strategy that may shorten this stage is encouraging an upright position, particularly when the practice is adapted to reflect local cultural traditions familiar to laboring mothers. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a local tradition-based upright position model on the duration of the first stage of labor. A quasi-experimental design with a post-test only, non-equivalent control group approach was used, involving 40 mothers in labor who were allocated into an intervention group (n = 20), receiving the local tradition-based upright position, and a control group (n = 20), receiving standard intrapartum care. The two groups were comparable in age, parity, education, occupation, and gestational age. The duration of the first stage of labor was tested for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk test and for homogeneity of variance using Levene's test, followed by an Independent Samples t-test. The results showed that the mean duration of the first stage in the intervention group was 6.775 ± 1.129 hours, compared with 9.875 ± 1.432 hours in the control group (t = -7.603, df = 38, p < 0.001), a difference of approximately 3.1 hours. It is concluded that the local tradition-based upright position model is effective in shortening the duration of the first stage of labor and can be recommended as a culturally sensitive component of woman-centered intrapartum care.]]>
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