ABSTRACT
In order to address the obstacle of finding persons who had recently utilized maternity leave, the individuals who were asked to participate were based on a purposive sample. I set out to interview women who had become a mother while working, and utilized a snowball or referral type of sampling. Each participant was asked to refer others who might also be a relatively new parent, and whom a participant thought might be willing to participate. These referrals, of course, led to both similar and more dissimilar interviewees, but all were helpful for making comparisons across the data and for enriching the data collected. One of the dangers of qualitative research is to sample too narrowly, so it is helpful to explore all referrals to ensure that one has a sample that is wide, deep, and contrasting (Miles and Huberman 1994, 34).
