2.4 Research Population
The population for this research was selected using a purposive sampling method. The sample was divided into
three groups: key informants, casual informants and general informants. The sixty-strong key informant group
was comprised of six government officials, nine local practitioners, eighteen local community leaders, eighteen
community health volunteers and nine community elders. There were thirty three casual informants, including
six government public health workers, nine Thai herb practitioners and eighteen postpartum mothers. The final
group of general informants consisted of eighteen postpartum husbands and eighteen postpartum family
members, totaling thirty six individuals. There was a total of one hundred and twenty nine informants for this
study.