Reflections on Doing Research Grounded in My Experience of Perinatal Loss: From Auto/biography to Autoethnography

Abstract

This article, derived from my doctoral dissertation (DAVIDSON 2007) examining the emergence of hospital protocols for perinatal bereavement during the last half of the twentieth century in Canada, focuses on the methodological complexities – the draw, the drain, and the delight of doing qualitative research grounded in my own experience of perinatal loss. With my dissertation now a fait a complete, reflecting back on my research, my use of autoethnography at this point allows a return to a story that has already happened and involves “the construction and reconstruction’ of my personal experiences as narratives’ (AUTREY 2003: 10). Taking this narrative turn, my enquiry here shifts auto/biography to autoethnography as a mode of enquiry.

Keywords

Qualitative Research Feminist Research Perinatal Loss and Grief Bereavement Experience Auto/biography Autoethnography

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