Using quantitative and qualitative approaches in knowledge production

Abstract

The debate over the differences between quantitative and qualitative methods is frequent, holding favorable and opposite positions concerning their integration. Outlining a research that contemplates both approaches generates doubts and restlessness about how to use them without damaging the methods' rigor, specificity, as well as the methodological and reflective sophistication of each. The purpose is to report and discuss using the quantitative (randomized controlled clinical trial) and the qualitative approach to analyze and understand the practice of including a companion chosen by the woman during her labor and childbirth, performing the role of support provider. Using both methods allowed for approximating the multiple facets involved in this practice and evaluating both the explicative dimension and the comprehension, since it could be performed with complementary views.