What about motherhood?

My first social research job was at the National Centre in HIV Social Research. Ten months after I started I was sent out into the field for my first interview on a project about sex and relationships of people living with HIV/AIDS. Although the sample consisted mostly of gay men, a nominal number of women were included in the sample. As the only woman interviewing on the project I was sent to interview all of the women who volunteered to participate. The first woman I met with, Jane2, had requested a "support person" be present with her during the interview when she was invited to participate. This request probably should have suggested to us that it was likely this interview was going to be particularly difficult for Jane. Within minutes of commencing the interview it became obvious to me that I would not be using the interview schedule. The woman sitting in front of me wanted to tell me a story, her story, which would not fit the mould of an interview schedule. Jane had met a man overseas, fallen in love, fallen pregnant and returned to Australia to have her baby.