Randomised controlled trials (RCTs), cluster RCTs and quasi-experimental studies, comparing nutritional education
and counselling, for pregnant adults or adolescents, with a concurrent control group, were eligible for inclusion. The
intervention had to focus on improving maternal diet and nutritional status. Where both groups received nutritional
education and counselling, the method of delivery, number of sessions or intensity had to differ between groups.
Studies of pregnant women, with specific health conditions or rare or congenital diseases, and studies prescribing
special diets, were excluded. The maternal outcomes of interest were gestational weight gain, pregnancy-induced
hypertension, haemorrhage, gestational diabetes, anaemia and deaths. Neonatal outcomes of interest were birth weight,
low birth weight, prematurity, gestational age, intra-uterine growth retardation, small-for-gestational age, deaths,
morbidity and infant growth.