ABSTRACT
The second site I wish to discuss involved a different kind of danger: emotional rather
than physical. The emotional danger present in any setting, differently from physical
danger, will vary according to the researcher’s personality and life experience. As
researchers we do not always have the luxury of choosing our research sites; we might
be geographically constrained because of time and money; our topic might mean we
act within narrow confines; we might join a project where the site is already a fait
accompli. This site was an example of this, having been already negotiated. The focus
of my work here was new technology and the work process related to professionals and
semi-professionals. Of particular interest was the design and introduction of a
‘decision support system’. This is a computer monitoring system on which medical
staff in the delivery suite record details of the birth as it is in progress, with the intention
that the system will make suggestions for management of the patient’s care. The site
was the central delivery suite of a large hospital, which delivered the majority of babies
(over four thousand a year) for a large city and surrounding area. Although the site had
moved, it was the same hospital at which my babies had delivered. There were long-
serving staff in the maternity suite who had been present when my babies were born,
one sixteen and the other twenty-one years ago.
