Adopting a Reflexive Approach to Researching Sensitive Subjects: Parental Experiences of Stillbirth and Neonatal Death

Abstract

In this article I am going to discuss the challenge in researching sensitive subjects and some of the ways this can be overcome by adopting a reflexive approach to conducting qualitative research. These particular challenges are detailed in relation to data collected from in-depth interviews from men and women bereaved by the death of their child following stillbirth and neonatal death. I discuss how a reflexive approach when combined with a voice centred relational method to analyse data, can be used to manage both the breadth and depth of the data as well as unearthing some of the ways in which men and women contextualised their experiences in relation to aspects of their lived biography. I propose that these combined approaches permit an explicit account of how the analysis was conducted and critically, how the researcher impacts upon the research process and product.

Researching relationality: Reflections on the use of concept cards during in-depth interviews

“…Recent work on reproduction and relationality has often focused on the topics under study, such as Nordqvist's (2021) research with families of donor conceived children; or, when aiming to develop an understanding of the self as relational during data analysis in a project exploring parental experiences of stillbirth and neonatal death (Jones, 2013). While supporting the findings of existing literature that points to the value of concept cards in centering the individual experiences of participants, in this article I will trace my use of the cards as a method that also helps to uncover the relationality of participants' experiences in individualized contexts, and as enhancing the interconnection between researchers and participants.…”