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Understanding the basics about what constitutes quality in qualitative research is essential if study results are to be useful in clinical practice or in building our lactation knowledge base. Often, this is not as easy as it sounds because so many different types of qualitative research exist; each type has a slightly different approach to interviewing, analyzing, and reporting. However, commonalities do exist and a basic knowledge of the various types of qualitative research can make the reader’s evaluation of the study results much easier. The purpose of this column is to highlight important areas of concern when evaluating qualitative research. The first step in understanding qualitative research methods is to understand how they differ from quantitative research, which is more familiar to most professionals. The basics of methodological rigor and a brief description of the major types of qualitative research found in lactation research follow. Although qualitative methods have been around as long as quantitative methods, perhaps even longer, they are generally less well understood by health care providers and quantitative researchers. This is understandable, as the health sciences are built on a long tradition of examining and emphasizing objective measurements. The foundation of health science education is set in the understanding that objective measurements provide information for decision making. During our professional education, we learn about the scientific process (observation, measurement, action, and evaluation). The scientific process is the basis of all quantitative research methods often used by health care professionals. It is a perspective grounded in the belief that there are objective measurements that do not change when the environment changes or depend on who is doing the measuring (Polit & Beck, 2017). In this way, the aim of quantitative research is to take the individual contextual factors out of the measurement situation (Polit & Beck, 2017). In other words, if three equally competent researchers are involved in a quantitative research project, it will not matter which researcher collects the data; the data will be the same. This process has brought us much scientific, cultural, and environmental advancement over the past 500 years. It is no wonder why we are more familiar and comfortable with this perspective; we come from a scientific background where objective measurement is considered the most valid data. Qualitative researchers approach the world from a very different perspective. Qualitative research does not seek to measure anything; therefore, the assumption that there is an objective way to study a particular phenomenon does not apply. The basic belief is that there are many different views of reality, depending on one’s perspective (Pascale, 2011). Although different types of qualitative methods have various perspectives about what is to be viewed (studied) within any given social/health context, all the qualitative methods view the world as subjective, rather than objective (Creswell & Poth, 2017). This means that the environmental and sociocultural context in which the research takes place affects the results of the research; there is no objectivity (Pascale, 2011). In addition, the qualitative researcher becomes part of the research process because he or she is interacting within the study. (Different types of qualitative research have slightly different ways of considering how the researcher might affect the research, which are discussed later in this column.) This highlights the importance that the qualitative researcher be well educated and experienced in conducting whichever type of qualitative research is used. It is unfortunate that this is not always the case. Sometimes, journal peer reviewers and editors are less knowledgeable about qualitative methods, leading to the publication of qualitative studies that are not methodologically sound. It is this less-than-rigorous research that has led some in health care to think of qualitative 698693 JHLXXX10.1177/0890334417698693Journal of Human LactationAbout Research research-article2017