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This paper aims to integrate the findings of the current literature on the phenomenon of freebirthing. A metasynthesis was carried out based upon Noblit and Hare's (1988) meta-ethnography. Searches were carried out in March 2013 and updated in March 2014 using 15 key databases. Inclusion criteria were applied: primary qualitative work, in English, focusing upon women who had freebirthed intentionally. A quality appraisal was carried out. This paper reports the findings from international studies, as there were no studies based on a UK population. Four studies were found that incorporated data collected from 272 women. The studies identified were based in the US and in Australia. Four key themes were generated: rejection of the medical and midwifery models of birth; faith in the birth process; autonomy; and agency. There was a prevailing sense of opting to freebirth in order to retain choice, control and autonomy over their bodies during the birth process.

Purpose The partners of cancer survivors may experience distress, anxiety, fear and uncertainty whilst also caring for and supporting a partner who is ill. As they concentrate on the cancer survivor’s needs, their own needs may remain unaddressed. Primary care staff may be well placed to support partners as they are generally accessible and may have a better knowledge of the patient’s background and family relationships. However, their current involvement in the cancer survivor’s and partner’s cancer-related care is unclear. This study aimed to describe the experience of the partners of cancer survivors in dealing with cancer-related issues in the first 3 years post-diagnosis, their use of primary care services in relation to these issues and the barriers in doing so and their views on the role that primary care could potentially play in supporting them as carers during this period. Methods Semi-structured interviews with 22 partners of cancer survivors diagnosed within the last 3 years and recruited through six GP practices in the Thames Valley Region of the UK were analysed using the ‘framework’ approach to thematic analysis. Results Three issues were identified as of particular concern to partners: providing practical support, providing emotional support and managing their own health and well-being. Few partners had sought or received support from primary care specifically for cancer-related issues, indicating confidentiality, lack of knowledge of family relationships and the greater need of the cancer survivor as barriers. Most partners would welcome a proactive approach from primary care and felt that this would provide an opportunity to discuss issues they were concerned about. Conclusions Needs and concerns of the partners of cancer survivors in caring for patients are often not addressed. There is a scope for primary care to elicit these needs and provide greater support. Changes to clinical practice in primary care could lead to greater involvement of and to better outcomes for cancer survivors and their partners. A proactive approach to patients and their partners or other close family members at the time of diagnosis through an offer of support and the inclusion in a designated review appointment at the end of initial treatment would be useful.

Semi-structured interviewing is an important tool for gathering data in qualitative research. This paper explores some of the joys and challenges associated with research interviewing. It discusses some of the basic skills required to do interviewing well, some of the difficulties associated with interviewing on a practical and emotional level, and how to address them. Being a good interviewer in a research context means to be aware of the responsibility for the participants' wellbeing as well as one's own. Good listening skills and emotional control are among the most crucial skills to develop. This paper summarises some of the skills needed to remain or become a professional, empathetic and ethical interviewer in the context of community practice. If some basic guidelines are followed and combined with practice, the craft of interviewing can become an art.

Introduction: This thesis comprises two chapters. Chapter I is a meta-ethnography of 14 qualitative papers on couples’ experiences of breast cancer published between 1955 and 2014. It provides a critical review and model of adaptation processes that couples engage in to make sense of the experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer. It outlines how constructions of ‘cancer’ and ‘the couple’ are linked to these processes. Chapter II is a longitudinal qualitative study addressing two gaps identified in Chapter I: experiences 1) of younger couples and 2) over time. Four couples participated in two separate interviews, approximately six months apart. 16 interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results focused on change over time in three dimensions with a bearing on couples’ adaptation: 1) changes in external circumstances as couples moved along the cancer trajectory; 2) changes in the meaning given to ‘cancer’; and 3) changes in the way the couples related to each other. Conclusions: Adaptation to cancer is a relational process that changes over time. Partners need to be more integrated into clinical care. Metaphors and meaning-making are linked to couples’ adaptation and could be explored further to develop tailored interventions.

Every year over 8,500 women under the age of 50 are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK. Current treatments can lead to severe long-term consequences, including infertility. Young women have been shown to have particularly high levels of psychosocial distress after a breast cancer diagnosis, the causes of which remain unclear. Distress in this medical context is largely defined as an indicator of psychopathology, rather than as an interpersonal and social emotion. Drawing on feminist literature which emphasises the importance of reproductive discourses for the subjectivities of women in the current climate of pro-natalist tendencies in Western societies, this thesis presents an alternative framework to the prevailing medical model. It explores the distress that young women report feeling as a result of their breast cancer diagnosis, and their experiences of breast cancer, infertility, and their female subjectivities. It moves away from the medical model's emphasis on quantification to focus on women's experiences from their viewpoint. A critical realist framework is employed to emphasise the constructed nature of 'experience', but also to acknowledge that this construction is shaped by material circumstances. A feminist materialist discourse analysis was conducted on 14 in-depth interviews with young women who had become infertile after breast cancer treatment. Chapters 2 and 3 provide a critical discussion of extant literature in the area, and chapter 4 provides the theoretical research context. The first four analysis chapters (chapters 5-8) discuss the dominant construction of infertility as a 'dysfunction' and 'problem', and chart a 'process' from initial treatment decision making, via the link between constructions of infertility and constructions of the 'self, to the losses women reported as a consequence of their infertility, and how they resisted and negotiated these dominant constructions. The last analytic chapter (chapter 9) presents alternative understandings to the dominant notion of the end of a woman's periods as 'infertility' or as a 'problem'. Recommendations are made not only for the improvement of medical breast cancer procedures, but also in relation to discursive constructions and practices.

We reflect on the design of a multispecies world centred around a bespoke enclosure in which three cats and a robot arm coexist for six hours a day during a twelve-day installation as part of an artist-led project. In this paper, we present the project's design process, encompassing various interconnected components, including the cats, the robot and its autonomous systems, the custom end-effectors and robot attachments, the diverse roles of the humans-in-the-loop, and the custom-designed enclosure. Subsequently, we provide a detailed account of key moments during the deployment and discuss the design implications for future multispecies systems. Specifically, we argue that designing the technology and its interactions is not sufficient, but that it is equally important to consider the design of the `world' in which the technology operates. Finally, we highlight the necessity of human involvement in areas such as breakdown recovery, animal welfare, and their role as audience.

While ethical challenges are widely discussed in HCI, far less is reported about the ethical processes that researchers routinely navigate. We reflect on a multispecies project that negotiated an especially complex ethical approval process. Cat Royale was an artist-led exploration of creating an artwork to engage audiences in exploring trust in autonomous systems. The artwork took the form of a robot that played with three cats. Gaining ethical approval required an extensive dialogue with three Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) covering computer science, veterinary science and animal welfare, raising tensions around the welfare of the cats, perceived benefits and appropriate methods, and reputational risk to the University. To reveal these tensions we introduce beneficiary-epistemology space, that makes explicit who benefits from research (humans or animals) and underlying epistemologies. Positioning projects and IRBs in this space can help clarify tensions and highlight opportunities to recruit additional expertise.

Cat Royale is an artwork created by the artists Blast Theory to explore the question of whether we should trust robots to care for our loved ones. The artists endeavoured to create a `Cat Utopia', a luxurious environment that was inhabited by a family of three cats for six hours a day for twelve days, at the centre of which a robot arm played with them by wielding toys. Behind the scenes, the decision engine recommended games based on ongoing assessment of their happiness. A video installation featuring an eight-hour movie of the cats' exploits is currently touring worldwide, provoking audiences to engage with the question of trust in autonomous systems.