“You may come in. sorry for the mess, it´s like this with babies”: ethical and theoreticalmethodological questions in research with women-mother of babies in the rural area

Abstract

In this paper, we seek to discuss some theoretical-methodological and ethical elements regarding the meeting with women-mothers of babies in the rural areas, especially in conducting semi-structured interviews. For recording the data, we utilized field diary, audio recordings and photographs. The paths to approach and interact with the women revealed relevant aspects about doing research in rural areas, such as: 1) in addition to the focus on the researched object, the exploratory phase of the study may also be a moment that reveals the real needs and
conditions for the subjects’ participation in the research; 2) the semi-structured interview as an intersubjective field highlights the active roles of the research and the participant; and 3) the style of interaction between interviewer and interviewee may influence the quality of the information obtained, especially when it comes to meeting women who are mothers of babies.