ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on findings from an empirical study which aimed to explore the life and birth experiences of women who have given birth in Pakistan (Chesney 2004). Seventeen women told their birth stories within in-depth life-story framed interviews: seven were recruited through acquaintances in the Punjab district of Pakistan and ten from an over-fifties club in a town in the north of England. Further contextual data were gleaned from participant observations undertaken during nine field trips to Pakistan and two focus groups at the over-fifties club. The methodology was interpretive ethnography (Denzin 1997) with an anthropological underpinning. Reflection was an important part of the research methodology; a contemporaneous research diary was kept. Analysis was undertaken using adapted frameworks from Alasuutari (1995), Polkinghorne (1995) and Childress (1998).
