Paper short abstract:

In the paper, I explore the possibilities and potential problems of using collage-making as a collaborative method of collecting fieldwork data with research participants in sensitive environments, specifically in the context of women's experiences of obstetric violence.

Paper long abstract:

The sensitivity of the topic of motherhood and institutionalized childbirth prompts me as a researcher to look beyond normative ethnographic research. Collage making with its epistemological underpinnings suggests its potential as a method for liberatory research in and through the arts (Katheeeln Vaugh 2005, 5). Could collage-making bring insight into the emotions of an individual participant? Could it collaboratively and with a sensitivity and perceived safety of existing visual material capture women's emotionality and the sensorial aspects of traumatic experiences? How does the cultural system of institutionalized birth influence women's birthing experiences and what repercussions it has for their spiritual, emotional, and physical lives? There is an underlying need to stand with the women, trust them and gain their own trust as a researcher. Their stories of childbirth trauma, neglect, and disrespect have been undermined for decades as systemically no changes or political debates have been held. It shows the imperative use of different modes of engagement. The multimodal inter-disciplinary and reflexive approach that provides the framework for the collection and analysis of visual, aural, embodied, and spatial aspects of interaction and environments should be an imperative way of research in this particular case. A combination of various modes of knowledge i.e. photography, video and audio recordings, visual and other objects, field diaries, ethnographic writing, etc. – thus provides multiple avenues to arrive at multiple “truths”, respecting different participants’ perspectives (Pink 2005).