Reflections on Doing Research Grounded in My Experience of Perinatal Loss: From Auto/biography to Autoethnography

Abstract

This article, derived from my doctoral dissertation ( DAVIDSON 2007 ) examining the emergence of hospital protocols for perinatal bereavement during the last half of the twentieth century in Canada, focuses on the methodological complexities – the draw, the drain, and the delight of doing qualitative research grounded in my own experience of perinatal loss. With my dissertation now a fait a complete, reflecting back on my research, my use of autoethnography at this point allows a return to a story that has already happened and involves “the construction and reconstruction’ of my personal experiences as narratives’ ( AUTREY 2003 : 10). Taking this narrative turn, my enquiry here shifts auto/biography to autoethnography as a mode of enquiry.