U NIDAD 2 L A CÉLULA : ORIGEN , ESTRUCTURA Y FUNCIONES

Prior to entering the field, a pilot interview with a woman in Liverpool was conducted to test the methodology. This ensured that the researcher was able to test the appropriateness of the method for this research project. As the methodology utilises long periods of silence and minimal interviewer intervention, it was important that I trialled the methodology. The pilot also proved useful in highlighting subtle changes that could be made to the SQUIN and was useful in thinking about the structure of the different subsections that exist within the interview.

An important and essential feature of the sample was that it consisted of women, specifically mothers with children under the age of two. These criteria were purposive so that the respondents had a recent experience of pregnancy (under two years) and this would impact their narrative greatly. I chose a biographic narrative

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method for my research and being a mother is a standardised point. I wanted to obtain from mothers their complete pregnancy history as well as an account of all previous experiences with alcohol. I was able to do this by examining from a life course perspective as previously argued narrative research is especially useful for this. Another rationale for choosing my sample was that I did not want to alter inadvertently women’s behaviour or make them feel guilty or anxious about the health of their unborn baby. I was aware that a lot of women may inadvertently consume alcohol at a time before they realise that they are pregnant and I did not want to make them worry about the health of their child, the stress of which could be potentially harmful in itself. However I also wanted to use a life course perspective, and I recognised that there may be an interesting relationship with women and alcohol after they have had their child, such as during breastfeeding. Interviewing women with children under the age of two meant that they still had a relatively recent birth experience and were able to include this part of their narrative. I did however not exclude pregnant women from the sample and I did speak to two mothers who were pregnant at the time of interview; however these women had already had one or more children and consequently their current health and lifestyle behaviours were informed by their lay knowledge of their previous pregnancies. They also asked to be included in the study. By asking about the first memory or experience of alcohol each participant started their narratives at different times (e.g. they started their narrative at different ages) – not just at the start of their pregnancy (see SQUIN in Section 3.4). This allowed the women in this study to still concentrate a large part of their biography on their experiences of pregnancy, but ensured that the interview was from a life-course perspective, reflecting the role of alcohol in their lives as a whole.

I chose not to normally interview pregnant women for a variety of reasons, firstly, as they are designated a vulnerable group I did not want to cause any unnecessary strain or stress on women whilst they were still pregnant; however, this was also in part because I wanted to get the entire pregnancy story. If I were to interview women who were pregnant, they would not be able to account their entire experiences with alcohol during pregnancy, I would therefore also not gather any information on the role of alcohol at other times such as whilst breastfeeding. As this research is designed to look at alcohol consumption during pregnancy from the life-course

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perspective it was useful to interview women who already had children as they could then discuss the role that alcohol plays in their life now that they have children. This also enabled women to tell their stories around alcohol consumption and breastfeeding. It was particularly interesting where women had had more than one child and were able to talk about the different experiences that they had between the pregnancies. I also recognised that it would be difficult to talk to a pregnant woman as access to these women may also be more difficult. A discussion of their experiences here may also change women’s behaviour, and also may lead to women feeling anxious about the health of their unborn child.

The intention was to recruit a sample of women which would be equally spread across the two localities, in age and I wanted to keep the study as open and accessible as possible. It was also expected that some women would be recruited who had more than one child as this would be interesting to examine any differences in health and lifestyle changes that the women had made between different pregnancies. It was anticipated that the study was made as inclusive as possible and women’s drinking status was not a criteria. It was originally hoped that a minimum sample size of 20 would be reached with 10 respondents from each locality; however 14 respondents were recruited from Edinburgh and 7 were recruited from Inverness giving a total number of 22 participants. Unfortunately, as indicated in Section 3.5 one participant from Inverness withdrew shortly after the research which left 21 participants within the study.

The recruitment of participants originally commenced via contact with mother and toddler groups throughout the chosen areas. The initial stage of this was advertisement to the mother and toddler group of the research project; this entailed sending the group a letter (see appendix 4) explaining the study and also flyers advertising the study (see appendix 5). After this initial contact, all mother and toddler groups were contacted by telephone to request permission for the researcher to attend the group and talk to members, giving the researcher an opportunity to answer any questions that the group had of the study. This stage was problematic as some mother and toddler groups proved hard to access by telephone, either the contact details provided were wrong, or in a few instances groups were held in local buildings such as church halls, libraries or town halls. This proved challenging as I was often reliant on other people to pass messages on. In some cases people were

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reluctant to give out the contact details for the organiser of some mother and toddler groups. Some groups also did not want the researcher to attend. A number of the groups also clashed in the times that they ran, given that they were often in different areas, and travel limitations, accessing them both was also problematic. It was not possible for the interviewer to attend each mother and toddler group that was originally contacted by post. The groups that were visited by the researcher were influenced by the willingness of the group to receive the researcher and also the groups were chosen to ensure that different localities within the research areas were also visited.

Table 1: The number of groups that were contacted across the two sites, how many groups received a follow up telephone call and how many sites were visited by the researcher.

Edinburgh Inverness

Groups contacted by post 25 9

Groups contacted by telephone call 15 6

Groups visited by researcher 8 5

Total participants interviewed 14 7

At the mother and toddler groups, women who were identified as potential respondents were then given an information sheet (see appendix 2) which contained detailed information on the study and what it entailed. This also provided an opportunity to have a small discussion with the researcher giving further details on the study and for the researcher to answer any questions that the women had. It was made apparent to the participants that the interview was voluntary and confidentiality was assured. The contact details of the women who indicated that they were interested in participating were then taken and this was then followed up with a phone call to arrange a time and date for the interview that would be suitable to them. Several women showed interest instantly, revealing that they had stories to tell that may be of use, recruitment was therefore quite opportunistic and pragmatic. It was highly dependent upon the range of women at the mother and toddler groups

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and took the form of modified snowballing. In speaking to the women in attendance it was evident that the majority of the women had never been asked to take part in research before and they appeared pleased, often implying that there was some gravitas and importance of being asked for your story for an interview. However some women were a little more apprehensive, articulating their fear that ‘I’m not sure I will have much to say’. However because this research was about a potentially sensitive topic, ‘stigmatising discourses and emotional defences may have contributed to the difficulty in recruiting research respondents and the content of the data elicited’ (Harlow, 2009, p.213). This may also have resulted in women giving accounts which protect their from being othered or stigmatised (Lawler, 2002). Williams (1984, p.984) argues that ‘because maternal substance use and FAS/FAE remain highly stigmatised, women’s experiences of substance use, particularly during pregnancy, are often accompanied by intense feelings of guilt, shame, and trauma that can render women vulnerable in actions with researchers’

For the data collection in Inverness, very rural and remote areas were visited. This often made recruitment difficult as many women live far away from the services and potentially may rely on other forms of childcare and resources. As a consequence of this, at one mother and toddler group I attended, only 2 mothers attended. The women at this group revealed how they acted almost as a childcare community in bringing other children to the childcare. For one of these women, the journey to and from the mother and toddler group alone took nearly 40 minutes. She explained that with young children and other commitments, as well as other conditions such as the weather; in general attendance at some groups was fairly low. This also revealed to me that some mothers were quite isolated in Inverness and is one of the reasons why participation was lower in this city.