Research Summary

This research is to explore social workers experiences of supporting women who have miscarried, the types of support they implemented within their work, how beneficial they found the types of support to be and the current gaps within this field of practice. The findings will then be able to determine what the recommendations are for other social workers who may be in this field of practice. 

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Hello, my name is Alex Robbie and I’m a masters of applied social work student at Massey University. I am undertaking a qualitative research project which will explore the experiences of social workers who have supported women that have endured a miscarriage. 

The objectives of the project are to:

• Explore the role social workers have when supporting women who have miscarried
• How the support was provided to the women from the social workers
• How effective social workers believed the women found the support 
• The identifiable gaps within the service provision
• Any recommendations for other social workers who may support women who have experienced a miscarriage

I would like to invite you to participate within my research project as you are a registered social worker who has had experience in supporting women who have endured a miscarriage. 

In terms of the recruitment, the participants will have experience of supporting women through a miscarriage. Each of the participants will receive a $20 countdown gift voucher as a token of appreciation. 

The participants will be involved in one semi-structured interview where the timing will be around 1 ½ hours total. There will be the initial whanaungatanga which will take around 10- minutes, then for approximately 50 minutes the semi-structured interview will take place and finally for around 30 minutes will be the review of the interview transcript. These semi-structured interviews will be conducted either face-to-face or via zoom/teams’ meetings and will be with myself. There will also be a debrief within the review of the transcript to ensure that if there is anything heavy there that we can talk about it if need be. 

The data, i.e. the consent form, interview transcript and recording, will be kept in my University One Drive where only I will be able to access them. The data will be used towards the study to allow myself and readers to see the experiences of social workers with supporting women who have had miscarriages. Depending on whether you want to be identified within the data as well, I will take all precautions to make you unidentifiable within the report. All data will be destroyed or deleted after the research report has been examined. You will receive a copy of the research report after examination, you will also be notified if there are any publications that relate to this report too. 

You are under no obligation to accept this invitation.   If you decide to participate, you have the right to:

• decline to answer any particular question
• withdraw from the study (until the 1st of August 2025)
• ask any questions about the study at any time during participation
• provide information on the understanding that your name will not be used unless you give permission to the researcher
• be given access to a summary of the project findings when it is concluded
• ask for the recorder to be turned off at any time during the interview

This project has been evaluated by peer review and judged to be low risk.  Consequently, it has not been reviewed by one of the University’s Human Ethics Committees.  The researcher(s) named above are responsible for the ethical conduct of this research.

If you have any concerns about the conduct of this research that you wish to raise with someone other than the researcher, please contact the Director, Research Ethics, email humanethics@massey.ac.nz.

If you have any questions about this report please feel free to contact me:

Alex Robbie
E: alex.robbie01@gmail.com
T: 022 3424305
Or my supervisor Associate Profession Kathryn Hay (k.s.hay@massey.ac.nz)

Thank you for your time and consideration of my request

Kind regards

Alex