Maine Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (Maine PRAMS) – Component A Project Abstract The Maine Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System aims to accomplish three goals: operationalize and maintain a population-based surveillance system that collects specific data from Maine postpartum women on emerging issues regarding maternal behaviors and experiences that occur before, during, and after pregnancy; disseminate data collected to epidemiologists and subject matter experts that will use the data to inform their practice and overall public health policy; and, ultimately decrease the maternal and infant morbidity and mortality rate in Maine. These aims coincide with the overall purpose of PRAMS for Component A by aligning efforts to address surveillance needs especially on a proactive and emerging scale. To execute this project Maine PRAMS will use multi-modal data collection in the form of both paper and telephone surveys provided to voluntary participants who are randomly sampled via State of Maine certified birth certificates. Participants will be randomly sampled based on their delivery date of two to four months prior, residence status (in- state vs. out-of-state), and non-surrogate and non-adoptive status. This data collection will be conducted on an ongoing basis by initiating a sample batch for each of the twelve months of a data collection year to capture new births. The batches will follow a strict schedule that outlines the mailing dates for surveys, when to transition to phone surveys, and ultimately when to cease data collection for each batch. Maine PRAMS intends to garner support and data partnerships within the current steering committee as well as externally to influence the rate of use and the value of the data collected. The nature of these relationships determines the effect that Maine PRAMS aims to hold on improving the health and wellness of Maine mothers and babies and simultaneously decreasing the mortality and morbidity of the maternal and child health population.