An <i>Illicit</i> Way to Elicit Public Health Responses to Obstetric Violence: Poetic Inquiry of Open-Ended Survey Data

Sensitive areas of research require sensitive ways of inquiry. Despite the growth of research on obstetric violence, its recognition as a form of gender-based violence continues to be contested and met with resistance. As a problem stemming from gendered power imbalances, we explored obstetric violence from a critical feminist lens, situating the different parts of the exploration such as analysis, presentation and integrated knowledge translation into arts-based research. In this paper, we describe poetic inquiry as an innovative, and effective method for analyzing a large qualitative dataset of thin data on sensitive and/or controversial topics. We applied voice-centred relational analysis to 2,741 open text patient-reported narratives on obstetric violence reported in the nationwide Canadian RESPCCT survey. We present three poetry iterations: sparse IPoems, full IPoems and context poems using the Voice Centered Relational Analysis. Each type of poem and the way of reading them aims to impact the audience in distinct ways by evoking different feelings and approaches to engaging with the participants’ narratives. Drawing on principles of intersectionality theory and standpoint theory, we present a detailed description of our positionalities to give the readers an insight into how we practiced reflexivity while researching a sensitive subject. With this paper we intend to further the discourse and utility of arts-based research, particularly poetic inquiry, in analyzing and presenting open text survey responses.