Methods.

Scroll down to find out about how the POLYBABES study was conducted.

Recruitment

The recruitment poster you see below was posted on social media. In this way a convenience sampling method was used. Through multiple shares on different social media platforms a snowballing effect was achieved.

Eligibility

Anyone in Canada who had 1) given birth in the last five years, 2) self-identified as polyamorous, and 3) received prenatal care was eligible to participate. Any partners of the individual were also eligible to participate.

Participation

Participants were asked to complete a short demographic questionnaire which included collection of informed consent. All consenting participants took part in a semi-structured interview, ~45-60 minutes in length.

What was asked?

In each interview participants were asked to describe their relationship structure. Next we asked participants to tell us about their pregnancy and birth experience. Follow-up questions were asked when necessary to understand more about the client-healthcare provider relationship.

What happened next?

All participant interviews were recorded and the text was transcribed. Two reviewers read and coded the corresponding text. All of the codes were then grouped using thematic analysis as described by Braun & Clark.