Questions
Commonly Asked about PRAMS
What
is PRAMS?
PRAMS (Pregnancy
Risk Assessment Monitoring System) is a joint project between
the Utah Department of Health and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC). Our purpose is to find out
why some babies are born healthy and others are not. To
do this, our questionnaire asks new mothers questions about
their pregnancy and new baby. Each year in Utah there are
hundreds of babies born with serious health problems. Many
of these babies die. We need new mothers’ help to find
out why. No matter how their pregnancy went, their answers
will help us learn more about ways to improve the health
of future mothers and babies in Utah.
Will
the answers to the survey be kept private?
Yes-all answers
are kept private as provided by Utah State law. All answers
given on the questionnaires will be grouped together to
give us information on Utah mothers and new babies. No reports
can be traced backed to mothers responding to the survey.
Is it really important that
mothers answer these questions?
Yes, very important!
Because of the small number of mothers selected for the
survey, it is important to have everyone’s answers.
Every pregnancy is different. To get a better overall picture
of the health of mothers and babies in Utah, we need each
mother selected to answer the questions. From the information
mothers give to us, we may be able to improve health care
for women and children in Utah. We need to know what went
right as well as what might have gone wrong during pregnancy.
All selected mothers’ help with the survey is really
important to the success of our program.
Some of the questions do
not seem related to health care-why are they asked?
Many things may
affect a pregnancy. These questions try to get the best
picture of new mothers’ health care and experiences
during pregnancy.
How are mothers chosen to
participate in PRAMS?
Mother’s
names are selected by chance from the state birth certificate
registry. About one in every 18 mothers in Utah will be
chosen to help us in this study. All mothers’ participation
with the PRAMS survey is entirely voluntary. There is no
penalty or loss of benefits for not answering some or all
of the questions.
PRAMS? How will information from
the PRAMS survey be used?
PRAMS
provides data not available from other sources about pregnancy
and the first few months after birth. The information can
be used to:
