When designing qualitative research I think we make assumptions about what participants might need when engaging in highly sensitive interviews and discussions.

I was involved in a project exploring people’s experiences of baby loss, in which issues of shame, self-blame and unexpressed grief, were woven through participants’ narratives. It really made me rethink my approach to highly sensitive projects and made me question the set of beliefs I must have being carrying around for many years about what is ‘best’ methodologically.

I think lurking at the back of my mind has been the belief that in-person interviews are ‘best’ to build rapport with participants and so might be offered as an option for the most sensitive of projects. If that is not possible or wanted, I then would assume that seeing the whites of people’s eyes – online, on a video call – would be the next best option.

However, something interesting began to happen when I started interviewing on this project. Participants started to ask to turn their cameras off and also wanted me to turn mine off. I started to ask why this was important to them, as this happened in the majority of interviews.

They told me they wanted to be able to cry in private and took comfort in knowing the camera was off but that someone was listening intently (listening noises and feeding back therefore became critical). Some participants, who had experienced a miscarriage, stillbirth or had lost their newborn babies, had feelings of shame and self-blame, and explained that they found it difficult to handle seeing other people’s emotional responses.

It had never really occurred to me how sensitive telephone interviews could be (and how valuable they could be perceived to be) and how they might enable engagement on subjects that would otherwise be very difficult to discuss. I will always check my assumptions here on and ask participants in future!

Has a project given you pause for thought?

[Project: What is the most sensitive way of asking about experiences of baby loss? Commissioned by the Care Quality Commission, led by Picker].