Table 1 Arksey & O’Malley’s [16] 5-Step Guide to conducting a scoping review

1. Identifying the research question

What literature exists that considers the father’s experience within the context of a high-risk pregnancy?

2. Identifying relevant studies

The search strategy included a review of the EBSCOhost metadatabase, specifically the following nine databases were screened: Academic Search Complete; APA PsychArticles; CINAHL Plus with full-text; Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition; MasterFILE Premier; MasterFILE Reference eBook Collection; MEDLINE; SocINDEX with full-text; and eBook Collection

To further guide the review the following search terms were used: “Father” OR “Dad” OR “Paternal” AND “High risk pregnancy” OR “Complicated pregnancy” OR “Medical high-risk pregnancy” OR “Birth complications” OR “Pregnancy complications”

There were no limitations in terms of the time period in order to fully provide a synthesis of the landscape of available literature. However, once all Boolean phrases were included in the Ebscohost metadatabase, the search results indicated a date period of 1948–2022

The study adopted a four-pronged approach in the screening and review of the various literature. The initial search which included a review of all titles, followed by a review of all the abstracts, a review of the full-text articles against the predetermined inclusion criteria and finally a reference mining review of the included articles

3. Study selection

Throughout each stage of the review, all three authors applied the inclusion criteria to determine the appropriateness of the various titles, abstracts and full-texts in addressing the aim of the study

The inclusion criteria:

•Studies that focus on fatherhood and high-risk pregnancy

•Studies that include both parents within the context of high-risk pregnancy (data on fathers was extracted)

•Peer-reviewed studies published in English with full-text access

•There were no limitations placed on the specific cause of the high-risk pregnancy

•No limitations were placed on study designs

The exclusion criteria:

•Studies that focus on absent fathers

•Studies that did not specifically focus on high-risk pregnancy

•Studies that reported on mothers’ perceptions of father’s experiences

4. Charting the data

The data extraction was completed using Microsoft Excel with the following headings used as a guide: Authors; Aim of the Study; Research Context; Research Design; Sample Characteristics; Key Findings (see Table 3)

Furthermore, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews as well as the Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) was used to delineate the review process (see Fig. 1)

5. Collating, summarising and reporting the results

Narrative synthesis was used to collate, summarise and report the results of the study. This study adopted the last three steps in conducting a narrative synthesis specifically: developing a preliminary synthesis; exploring the relationships within and between studies; and finally assessing the robustness of the synthesis [17]. The second and third author conducted the synthesis as part of their thesis. This synthesis was repeated by the first author as a means of comparing and qualifying differences. These differences were discussed collectively and once an agreement was established the data was reported