*2.4. The Qualitative Survey and Participants*

Parents (biological, adoptive, foster, kin) who self-identified as the primary caretakers of a newborn baby aged 0–12 months during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic (beginning March 2020) were recruited through social media recruitment to participate in an on-line open ended survey. Participants were encouraged to write as much as they wanted to describe their experiences within their families, as well as any supports they may have had during this period. Specifically, three opened ended questions were asked. These questions were (1) Tell us about your experience at home with your new baby and how the situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic affected you and your family; (2) Tell us about your experience of support (from friends, family, healthcare professionals) during the COVID-19 pandemic; and (3) Tell us about your experience of searching for and receiving information about caring for yourself, your baby, and your family during the COVID-19 pandemic. Responses varied in length.

We recruited 68 participants to complete the qualitative survey. All participants lived in the province of Nova Scotia in Canada, with over two thirds of them living in cities or towns in the province. Although we purposefully put out a call to include a variety of parents/guardians, all participants

self-identified as mothers who gave birth within the last year and predominantly identified as heterosexual, white women. Most participants were living with their partners, with only a few identifying as a single parent. Approximately half of the participants reported having other children in their care during this time.

#### *2.5. Data Analysis*

Discourse analysis was used to analyze the data. Consistent with the feminist poststructuralist approach of the research, the use of discourse analysis [29] enabled the meaning of personal experiences to be deconstructed as a means of exploring how they related to social and institutional beliefs, values and practices. Discourse analysis is a non-linear process that attempts to look beyond the surface meanings of text to situate them within historical, political, social, and cultural contexts [29]. For this process, we paid close attention to language, meaning and relationships between participants, others and the health care system. All researchers independently reviewed the participants' responses and noted the beliefs, values, and practices of the participants relating to their family experiences during the pandemic period, the language of the participants, as well as any tensions expressed. The team met as a whole to discuss the independent analysis and came to a consensus on the final discursive considerations.

Several key characteristics, such as rigor, trustworthiness, and credibility were attained through various processes. For example, the maintenance of accurate documentation, an audit trail that included detailed notes on the way responses were analyzed by each team member, positionality and reflections of researchers, and notes that recorded the ongoing discussions between the team during the analysis ensured rigor, trustworthiness, and creditability [35].
