WORKING AS A COORDINATOR MIDWIFE IN A TERTIARY ...

hospital midwives working in delivery suite settings because I care passionately about
coordinators who appear to have no voice within New Zealand midwifery circles and this
topic had not been previously addressed in New Zealand midwifery research studies.
Coordinator midwives are women with expert clinical skills who I conceptualized work
under significantly challenging circumstances with provision of safe care of women in
the tertiary delivery suite at the core of their ‘being’. I knew I would remain focused on
this study; such was my interest and commitment to the phenomenon. Van Manen (1990)
makes it clear there is always potential for another research study to discover “richer and
deeper meaning”, so this study will be my interpretation and just “one interpretation”
(p.31).
The researcher is challenged to research the experience of the phenomenon as it is lived
rather than how it is conceptualized (van Manen, 1990). I recognize I had unconsciously
conceptualized coordinators’ experiences prior to commencing this study. By addressing
my pre-understandings through taped interviews, transcribing and interpretation, I was
able to peel back, face and work through my beliefs which are documented in Chapter
One. Only then could I open my mind to listen to the lived experiences of the women I
interviewed and what they chose to share with me, rather than crafting what I wanted to
hear.
I was challenged to allow themes in this study to reveal themselves to me rather than me
finding them. Van Manen (1990) describes experiences within dimensions of “time,
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