Professional women and maternity transition: Guidelines for maternity coaching in organisations

Orientation and research purpose: There is a need to explore the role of maternity coaching in supporting and retaining professional women in South African organisations. Therefore, this study investigated the experiences of professional women during their maternity transition into working mothers and explored how maternity coaching can be used as a strategic intervention to support these women. Research design, approach and methodology: A qualitative inductive methodological approach was followed to gain an in-depth understanding of maternity coaching. The research strategy was cross-sectional and multi-perspective, consisting of 13 participants from 4 professional groups. Main findings: The findings emphasise that maternity coaching can play a positive role in assisting both working women and organisations to successfully navigate the maternity transition phase. Through the findings, it was established why maternity coaching is needed as a mechanism of support, how maternity coaching should be implemented and what should be included in the coaching conversations. Practical managerial implications: This article provides a Maternity Transition Coaching Model with guidelines and recommendations for different professional groups in any organisation where maternity transition is experienced. The implications of this study are how maternity coaching can be implemented as a tool in dealing with retention of professional women during maternity transition and to increase gender diversity at the senior organisational level. Contribution: The body of knowledge contributes to understanding the role of maternity coaching as an emerging form of transition coaching in organisations. A Maternity Transition Coaching model was designed that is complemented by guidelines for implementing a maternity coaching programme that can be utilised by human resources personnel, senior management and coaches who are exposed to the adverse consequences of senior women leaving the organisations because of the challenges they face during maternity transition.