Maternal & Newborn Atlas
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Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS)

A US survey system, run by the CDC with state health departments, that asks women who recently had a baby what they did, thought and went through before, during and shortly after pregnancy. Researchers can request its data, and some results are published online.

  • Resource
  • In this atlas

Overview

Technical summary

Design as described in the 2018 AJPH overview (PMID 30138070): state-based surveillance; samples drawn from birth certificates of women with a live-born infant; survey by mail and telephone; annual state samples of about 1000 to 3000; stratification by characteristics such as maternal age, race or ethnicity, area of residence and infant birth weight; multistate data sets available to researchers for states that meet response rate thresholds. The CDC PRAMS pages return an access error to scripts, so the record rests on the paper's abstract only. It names CDC as the owner through the core record.

Resource

Type
Dataset
Contents
Survey responses from women who recently delivered a live-born infant, about their behaviours, attitudes and experiences from before pregnancy to shortly after it.
Access
Multistate data sets can be requested by researchers through a proposal, and estimates for selected indicators are available online (2018 paper abstract).
License
Not stated

Claims and evidence

Context Women who delivered a live-born infant in PRAMS jurisdictions, United States

Recipient
Maternal
Population
Women who delivered a live-born infant, selected from birth certificate records in each participating jurisdiction to represent all such women there. The survey asks what they did, thought and went through from before pregnancy to shortly after it.
Care setting
Not applicable: a mail and telephone survey
Geography
United States: the participating state-based jurisdictions (the abstract does not list them)
Life stage
Before, during and shortly after pregnancy
Gestational age
Not reported
Postnatal age
Not reported
Follow-up
An ongoing surveillance system; annual state samples of about 1000 to 3000 women
Eligibility: 1 inclusion criterion; 1 exclusion criterion
Included
  • Women who delivered a live-born infant in a participating jurisdiction
Excluded
  • Not stated in the PubMed abstract

  • Description Evidence stage not applicable Certainty not assessed

    PRAMS, the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, is an ongoing surveillance system, run state by state, that follows what mothers do, think and experience before, during and shortly after pregnancy. CDC's Division of Reproductive Health conducts it with state health departments. In each participating jurisdiction a sample of women who gave birth to a live infant is drawn from birth certificate records so that it represents all such women, and they are surveyed by mail and telephone. Annual state samples run from roughly 1000 to 3000 women. States that reach set response rate thresholds are included in pooled multistate data sets that researchers can request by submitting a proposal, and estimates for selected indicators are available online.

    Applies to Maternal
    • Women who delivered a live-born infant, selected from birth certificate records in each participating jurisdiction to represent all such women there. The survey asks what they did, thought and went through from before pregnancy to shortly after it.
    • Not applicable: a mail and telephone survey
    • United States: the participating state-based jurisdictions (the abstract does not list them)
    • Before, during and shortly after pregnancy
    • Gestational age Not reported
    • Postnatal age Not reported
    Follow-up An ongoing surveillance system; annual state samples of about 1000 to 3000 women
    Certainty method
    Not assessed
    Limitations
    This is a description of the survey design as of the 2018 overview paper. The paper's abstract does not say how many states take part, what the response rates are or which indicators are collected. CDC's own PRAMS pages return an access error to scripts, so they were not read, and nothing here describes current participation.
    Last checked
    2026-10-15
    Next evidence check due
    Not scheduled
    Sources and citations (8)

    1. Supports The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS): Overview of Design and Methodology

      Publication · American journal of public health · Edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities, retrieved 2026-10-15. The full text and the version of record were not read. PMC6137777 is not in the PMC Open Access subset, so no full text was fetched. · DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304563 · PMID: 30138070 · PMCID: PMC6137777

      Locator
      Abstract, sentence 2, fragment 1 of 2
      How it applies
      PubMed abstract of the AJPH 2018 design overview.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      2825ff111ab9f374dad35d4e0e90f9ee9889c6f6fcfb5fc47b488256e6c91271
      Reuse basis
      PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.

    2. Supports The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS): Overview of Design and Methodology

      Publication · American journal of public health · Edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities, retrieved 2026-10-15. The full text and the version of record were not read. PMC6137777 is not in the PMC Open Access subset, so no full text was fetched. · DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304563 · PMID: 30138070 · PMCID: PMC6137777

      Locator
      Abstract, sentence 2, fragment 2 of 2
      How it applies
      PubMed abstract.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      2825ff111ab9f374dad35d4e0e90f9ee9889c6f6fcfb5fc47b488256e6c91271
      Reuse basis
      PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.

    3. Supports The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS): Overview of Design and Methodology

      Publication · American journal of public health · Edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities, retrieved 2026-10-15. The full text and the version of record were not read. PMC6137777 is not in the PMC Open Access subset, so no full text was fetched. · DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304563 · PMID: 30138070 · PMCID: PMC6137777

      Locator
      Abstract, sentence 3
      How it applies
      PubMed abstract.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      2825ff111ab9f374dad35d4e0e90f9ee9889c6f6fcfb5fc47b488256e6c91271
      Reuse basis
      PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.

    4. Supports The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS): Overview of Design and Methodology

      Publication · American journal of public health · Edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities, retrieved 2026-10-15. The full text and the version of record were not read. PMC6137777 is not in the PMC Open Access subset, so no full text was fetched. · DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304563 · PMID: 30138070 · PMCID: PMC6137777

      Locator
      Abstract, sentence 5
      How it applies
      PubMed abstract.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      2825ff111ab9f374dad35d4e0e90f9ee9889c6f6fcfb5fc47b488256e6c91271
      Reuse basis
      PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.

    5. Supports The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS): Overview of Design and Methodology

      Publication · American journal of public health · Edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities, retrieved 2026-10-15. The full text and the version of record were not read. PMC6137777 is not in the PMC Open Access subset, so no full text was fetched. · DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304563 · PMID: 30138070 · PMCID: PMC6137777

      Locator
      Abstract, sentence 6
      How it applies
      PubMed abstract.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      2825ff111ab9f374dad35d4e0e90f9ee9889c6f6fcfb5fc47b488256e6c91271
      Reuse basis
      PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.

    6. Supports The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS): Overview of Design and Methodology

      Publication · American journal of public health · Edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities, retrieved 2026-10-15. The full text and the version of record were not read. PMC6137777 is not in the PMC Open Access subset, so no full text was fetched. · DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304563 · PMID: 30138070 · PMCID: PMC6137777

      Locator
      Abstract, sentence 7
      How it applies
      PubMed abstract.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      2825ff111ab9f374dad35d4e0e90f9ee9889c6f6fcfb5fc47b488256e6c91271
      Reuse basis
      PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.

    7. Supports The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS): Overview of Design and Methodology

      Publication · American journal of public health · Edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities, retrieved 2026-10-15. The full text and the version of record were not read. PMC6137777 is not in the PMC Open Access subset, so no full text was fetched. · DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304563 · PMID: 30138070 · PMCID: PMC6137777

      Locator
      Abstract, sentence 10
      How it applies
      PubMed abstract.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      2825ff111ab9f374dad35d4e0e90f9ee9889c6f6fcfb5fc47b488256e6c91271
      Reuse basis
      PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.

    8. Supports The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS): Overview of Design and Methodology

      Publication · American journal of public health · Edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities, retrieved 2026-10-15. The full text and the version of record were not read. PMC6137777 is not in the PMC Open Access subset, so no full text was fetched. · DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304563 · PMID: 30138070 · PMCID: PMC6137777

      Locator
      Abstract, sentence 11
      How it applies
      PubMed abstract.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      2825ff111ab9f374dad35d4e0e90f9ee9889c6f6fcfb5fc47b488256e6c91271
      Reuse basis
      PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.

Record details

Record id
maternal:prams
Content hash
209f99aba164eb8da45bffed61278d1b0f1823dec41df3042d5827fc215affb5