Health coaching interventions across Global Maternity services; A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background Health and well-being coaching is a patient-centred approach that supports the achievement of health and wellness by way of guidance, motivation and behavioural change. Its ability to improve diet, life-style habits and stress management can all improve maternity outcomes. Despite this potential the use of health and well-being coaching in maternity service is in its’ infancy though is beginning to increase. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to understand existing evidence and suggest how it might inform its future implementation in maternity services. Methods We developed a systematic methodology and, used PubMed and ScienceDirect to gather peer review publications linked to our study eligibility criteria. Randomised and non-randomised clinical trials published in English from the 30th of April 1980-30th of December 2023’ were included. A meta-analysis was used to report the findings. Results A total of 8 studies were systematically included. Of these four were used in a meta-analysis all of which explored the influence of health and wellbeing coaching on gestational weight gain. The mean difference in GWG (kg) in those groups receiving health and well-being coaching was − 0.76 (95% CI: -2.55 to 1.04) indicating no significant statistical difference among the groups. The odds ratio of GWG within the target range was 4.17 (95% CI: 0.55 to 31.64) for the remote health coaching group compared to the conventional group, which indicates no difference between the groups. The sensitivity analysis compared the Copas selection model to a random effects model showed p-values exceeding 0.05, indicating a lack of statistical significance. Thus, the results are consistent and provide robust conclusions. Conclusion Health coaching’s ability to empower individuals, foster support, and promote healthy behaviours, appears to positively impact maternal health outcomes by reducing GWG. More research is needed to substantiate this finding and to understand its impact on other health outcomes and its acceptability to patients and healthcare professionals.