The most challenging aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic was conducting fieldwork to obtain quality data for anthropological research. Although many of the scholars proposed telephonic interviews as an alternative method of data collection there is no equivalent alternative of fieldwork for population-based data collection. How did the researchers continue doing fieldwork during and after the pandemic? What was the impact of new norms of “social distancing” and ‘masked faces’ in interviewing participants in the hospital-based research? The present study aims to answer these questions through the experiences of conducting fieldwork during and after the pandemic in the GaRBH cohort [Gestational Route to Healthy Birth], a longitudinal study set up in the government hospital located in the district of Bikaner, Rajasthan. The paper is based on the observations and interviews with pregnant women who participated in the ongoing research on the role of mental health during gestation in influencing maternal and child health. The present paper explores the changing dynamics of researcher-participant relations, issues of trust, and the fieldwork approaches during the COVID. The study also illustrates how the pandemic influenced institutional delivery in government hospitals that were transformed into centers for COVID treatment or used as quarantine centers.
