Tennessee PRAMS collects self-reported data from a sample of mothers related to experiences and behaviors before, during, and shortly after a recent live pregnancy. This data provides the state with a resource to evaluate the health of new mothers and babies in order to create and improve programming for future mothers and babies.
Project Summary The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) is a collaborative project with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish and maintain a state-specific population-based epidemiological surveillance system of selected maternal attitudes, behaviors and experiences within the state of Tennessee. There are two major goals of the Tennessee PRAMS project. The first is to obtain data to understand the risk factors that contribute to infant mortality and morbidity. The second is to obtain data to understand the experiences and behaviors before, during, and after pregnancy that results in high risk births. These goals contribute to Tennessee's continuing commitment to support programming for healthy mother and baby initiatives. Each month, a sample of women who have had a recent live birth is randomly drawn from the birth certificate file. Mothers who have low birth weight babies and mothers who live in urban areas are sampled at a higher rate to ensure that adequate response rates are achieved for these smaller but higher risk populations. Sampled mothers are contacted first via mail. These mothers are mailed a questionnaire covering a battery of questions related to prenatal and postnatal behaviors and experiences. Questionnaires are sent three times, and, if there is no response to these mailings, mothers are contacted and interviewed by telephone. Responses are then aggregated to provide a picture of the behavior of expectant mothers for legislative and program planning.
