Data collection

The development of an interview guide (Appendix 3) allowed for questions that related to themes from the literature review and research objectives to be included. This guide supports the conversation in a flexible manner, as the aim of these interviews was to collect first-hand experiences (Gregory 2010) from the mothers. Having an interview guide allowed for

divergence from specific questions to capture individual experiences during the conversation. The topics included their experiences of being a HIV positive mother (including positive aspects), whether they had experienced discrimination or stigma due to their HIV status and what support networks they accessed (Appendix 3).

Prior to commencing the study, a mother who was HIV positive agreed to take part in the pilot interview. This interview allowed for checking of the practicalities of the interviewing process, for example, refinement of the interview questions, checking digital recording equipment, and dealing with any unforeseen problems in advance of data collection commencing. Following the pilot interview, I was more comfortable with the digital recording device and my interview questions and style. As already discussed, there was a rationale behind each inclusion and exclusion criterion and one participant had been diagnosed within the last six months. In this instance, the interview continued as the woman was keen to participate. Fifteen mothers volunteered to participate and when contacted by phone some declined to be interviewed or could not make it despite being offered many appointments. Some of those who failed to attend for the interview (which were mainly in the morning) said they had difficulty setting the time aside as they had to be available for school pick-ups, hospital appointments or work which took priority. There was no financial incentive offered to potential participants to participate and eleven mothers were eventually interviewed.

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3.3.8 Interviews

All the interviews were audio recorded using a digital recorder and the interviews took place in the HIV centre between January and June 2011. The length of the interviews ranged from twenty-three minutes to one hundred minutes, with an average time of fifty minutes. Written consent was sought prior to the interview. I checked that all participants understood what the interview was about. Some required assistance with this task as they did not fully understand the purpose of the research study prior to meeting me. In addition, a brief demographic information form was developed and completed at the end of each interview (Appendix 4). Each interview commenced with an opening question asking the women to talk about their experiences as an HIV positive mother. Many responded to this question by describing their diagnostic experience or telling how many children they had. Some had difficulty starting and asked me for guidance. In this instance, I asked them to tell me about their children or when they were diagnosed, as these appeared to be the natural starting point for other participants. Additionally, I asked participants about their lives as HIV positive mothers, disclosure to others and, if they had experienced discrimination or stigma, what support networks they used. I adopted a conversational and free flowing style during the interview to allow the women’s accounts to be collected, while acknowledging the sensitivity of the topic. Gregory (2010) stresses that interaction between the narrator and researcher is of upmost importance during the interviews, my attention was therefore always directed towards the narrator. A couple of challenges arose during the interviews. For example, one interview took place in the dining room area of the HIV centre as there had been a mix up with room bookings. We were disturbed a few times with background noise but the participant was happy to continue despite these interruptions. Another mother brought her young daughter with her to the interview as she had no-one to mind her. During this interview her daughter required attention and as a result, there was significant background noise on the recording that

affected the transcript of that particular interview. After each interview, I wrote down my own observations and reflections on each interview before I left the HIV centre. The interviews were transcribed verbatim by a transcriber as I received a small seed grant from my employers to support my study. I worked closely with the transcriber during the preparation of the transcripts and checked the completed transcripts with the audio files to ensure they were accurate.

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Each transcript was reviewed many times to ensure familiarity with the data, to correct spelling inaccuracies and to change participants and their children’s names and remove

hospital names to protect anonymity. Bird (2005 cited in Braun and Clarke 2006) contends that the process of transcript review can be an integral part of the interpretation stage of analysis, as it facilitates understanding of the data (Braun and Clarke 2006). Specific challenges that arose when using a transcriber who was not familiar with HIV/medical terminology were the use of HIV-specific references, for example, ‘viral load’ or ‘antiretrovirals’ and medical terms which were misspelt by the transcriber. The audio recordings of the interviews were difficult to follow in parts, for instance, if participants spoke in a low voice or if English was their second language, so it was easier for me to listen to and identify gaps in the transcripts to ensure they were as accurate as possible (Braun and Clarke 2006). The process was time-consuming but worthwhile to ensure I was familiar with the interview data as Poland (2002, cited in Gubrium 2002) argues, producing interview transcripts can be challenging from a quality perspective due to the subjective nature of the task and the potential for error which can affect the validity.