Iphone is only tracking steps inside my house when I'm holding it. Is this normal? Do I have to be holding it?

I set up the Health app on iphone 11 yesterday to count my steps. While I was in my house, holding the phone, it counted and recorded my steps. But, when I went outside for my walk this morning, I had the phone with me in my walker basket. I can't hold it while I'm walking. I walked 2.3 miles and it recorded nothing. Do I have to be holding the iphone for it to track my steps? I don't know why I can't find an answer to such a basic question on google. "Do you have to hold iphone or it to record steps?" I got a trillion bits of information but NOT the answer to this simple question.