In keeping with a narrative approach, the style of the interview
was unstructured and conversational. Essentially the women
were informed that the study’s focus was the real life experiences
of pregnancy and childbirth following HIV diagnosis, including
pregnancy decision-making and experience of care. The women
were then invited to tell their story from any starting point in
their life. Riessman (1993) advocates listening with a minimum of
interruptions and, wherever possible, tieing questions to the
participants’ responses by repeating their words. Returning for a
second interview also provided the researcher with an opportunity
to review the themes emerging from preliminary analysis of
the first interviews. The majority (20/22) of interviews were
conducted in participants’ homes, during 2008–2009 and lasted
between 60 and 90 mins.