AI as Emotional Support in Pregnancy: A Review and Synthesis for Emerging Research Directions

Background: People navigating pregnancy face significant emotional vulnerability, with emotional support serving as a crucial protective factor for perinatal wellbeing. While there is emerging scholarship on how AI is used as a diagnostic tool during pregnancies, early evidence suggests that people are increasingly turning to generative AI platforms for everyday emotional support during pregnancy. Yet, scholarly understanding of this phenomenon remains limited. Objective: This scoping review maps the existing literature on AI and emotional support during pregnancy, identifies critical research gaps, and establishes scaffolding for future research. Methods: Based on a thematic synthesis of a selected body of research, we reviewed literature examining AI applications in perinatal emotional support, distinguishing everyday emotional support from clinical mental health interventions. Results: The analysis revealed a nascent field dominated by clinical diagnostics and purpose-built chatbots. Critical gaps include absence of research on organic use of generative AI platforms, imbalanced representation of the perinatal continuum, and a focus on diagnosable conditions rather than everyday emotional needs. The evidence suggests women are co-constructing emotional support scaffolding through AI, something previously unavailable with existing technology. Conclusions: The findings indicate that AI may enable an entirely new domain of wellbeing support at unprecedented scale. Equity-oriented future research is needed to understand how people—particularly from marginalised communities—are using AI for everyday emotional support, ensuring this emerging domain develops responsively rather than reproduce existing inequities.