Conducting Grounded Theories in midwifery research: practical insights

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Abstract
This article offers a practice-oriented reflection on conducting Grounded Theory (GT) in midwifery research. Building on a constructivist GT study on Italian midwifery care, it does not restate standard GT procedures; instead, it focuses on the methodological decision points that most strongly shaped analytic quality, coherence, and feasibility. Rather than providing a generic overview, it traces the concrete steps, trade-offs, and adaptations involved in implementing GT in a real world, applied setting. The paper discusses the importance of explicit paradigmatic positioning, the central interpretive role of the researcher, and the need to preserve continuity between data collection and analysis. It also examines practical issues that are often underreported, including the organisation of episodes, early and ongoing memoing, data management, the limits of automation, and the time-intensive nature of analytic consolidation. By making these aspects explicit, the article aims to support researchers in planning and conducting GT studies with greater methodological awareness and rigour, especially in applied healthcare contexts. In doing so, it offers a transferable methodological template for designing and reporting constructivist GT studies in midwifery and related fields.

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