Using emoji to explore midwives' perspectives of freebirth.

Velo Higueras, Maria; Douglas, Flora; Kennedy, Catriona

Abstract

Controversial topics unearth deep-seated values about what is right or wrong. In the context of maternity care in high-income countries, freebirth - the deliberate decision to birth without professional attendance - has become one recent controversial topic that has drawn the attention of both lay and academic debates, evoking strong emotions in all involved. Midwives' emotions towards this topic can be drivers for their attitudes and beliefs, greatly influencing their behaviours when caring for someone who is considering freebirth. However, emotions may not always be easy to put into words. Exploring midwives' emotions may require the use of imaginative research methods to explore this hidden terrain. The aim of this study was to investigate the novel use of emoji as an elicitation tool in qualitative interviews, with a view to exploring midwives' emotional responses to freebirth. The presentation presents the findings of the use of emoji as elicitation tool, describing methodological considerations and proposing a novel analytical framework for analysis of emoji data. Emojis in this study acted as emotional touchpoints, helping participants to access their feelings and describe them to others. Emojis brought an element of playfulness to research, maintaining and enhancing social relationships between researcher and participants, and fostering participants' power in the co-construction of meaning. The use of emoji as visual attention anchors can enhance the power of data in the reporting of findings. The study found that using emoji as an elicitation tool in qualitative research has the potential to generate rich emotional data. The proposed analytical framework provides a robust and flexible method for analysis of emoji-textual data.

Citation

VELO HIGUERAS, M., DOUGLAS, F. and KENNEDY, C. 2024. Using emoji to explore midwives' perspectives of freebirth. Presented at the 2024 Robert Gordon University School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedic Practice (SNMPP) postgraduate research symposium, 23 May 2024, Aberdeen, UK.

• Presentation Conference Type: Lecture
• Conference Name: 2024 Robert Gordon University School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedic Practice (SNMPP) postgraduate research symposium
• Conference Location: Aberdeen, UK
• Start Date: May 23, 2024
• Deposit Date: Apr 25, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: May 23, 2024
• Keywords: Emojis; Emotion analysis; Freebirth; Midwives
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2308033