A study of family networks and relationships in community midwifery

Abstract

In this chapter Jean Davies describes a study that she undertook in order to explore family networks in the community in which she worked. Her interest in this aspect of the neighbourhood arose from the conversations and experiences that she had had visiting women and their babies over a period of 4 years as a midwife. In Jean’s study practice was clearly a stimulus for research but, as her chapter shows, the relationship between research and practice was more complex and intimate than this. Jean uses the phrase ‘practitioner observation’ to describe this relationship, and this exemplifies some of the issues at the heart of practitioner research. Many readers will be familiar with the term ‘participant observation’, which is used to describe a method of collecting data in qualitative research. In participant observation the researcher enters a field as a participant; in other words, they take part in the activities that they observe. This may vary from complete participation, where the researcher acts as a full member of staff, for example, or there may be some limits imposed on the participation that occurs, and the researcher may restrict their activities to well-defined areas. Whatever the role chosen, the principles of participant observation are that the researcher is immersed in the world that they are studying, in order to gain an intimate familiarity with it and to collect detailed data.