Health education strategies targeting maternal and child health: A scoping review of educational methodologies

BACKGROUND: Health education during pregnancy is important to improve maternal and children outcomes. However, the strategies must be specifically designed for each context and demographic characteristics. Our objective was identify health education strategies targeting pregnant women with the intention of improving results of pregnancy at an urban level. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of the literature to answer the question: “what health education strategies targeting pregnant women were reported by primary healthcare teams or the community promoting health in pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum and childhood?” Potential eligible studies were selected using PubMed, Web of Science, LILACS and SciELO by 2 reviewers. RESULTS: From a total of 3105 articles, 23 were deemed eligible. We identified 9 educational methodologies focusing on different outcomes of pregnancy, birth or maternal wellbeing. CONCLUSIONS: It is important that health education strategies continue after childbirth, independent of the strategy. All the strategies presented in this review are suitable for transfer with a moderate chance of success of implementation or improvement of current education methodologies. Further research is required on health education, including a higher number of patients.