Glow glimmers

The design and arrangement of public birthing facilities has emerged as a key theme in my research. Much of this reflects a hierarchical and biomedical approach whereby efficiency for the medical team appears to override patient comfort. For instance, curtains that separate cubicles tend to offer little privacy, contributing to the prevalent disrespect. When a woman screams or a midwife shouts, everyone hears it.

Last week I was invited to walk around the labour ward in a local hospital after interviewing one of the educators there. I took a photo of the recently decorated room for mothers experiencing neonatal deaths. What struck me was the difference between this room and the starkness of the other spaces. It had curtains with colour, pictures on the walls, with a large lamp and clock as prominent features.

In the image above, using iPastels on the iPad, I added colour and patterns to demonstrate the entangled relationships. The pastels enabled me to blur the colours to depict the complex intra-actions that manifest in this space.

Drawing on the significance of the materiality of the labour wards, I recognize the glow that emerges from this visit – a sense of pulling in. This feeling is affirmed by MacLure who recommends that we take a novel stance with data collection by suggesting that “in the research relation with data, we must be invited in” (2013:662). 

MacLure, M. 2013. Researching without representation? Language and materiality in post-qualitative methodology, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26:6, 658-667.