Despite the increasing emphasis on pre- and
interconception planning, perinatal data available to local
municipalities and organizations is often limited to that on
the birth certificate. A partnership between a local health
department and an academic medical center sought to
overcome this gap. Using the core questions from the
Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS)
and a stratified random sample methodology (by income) in
a county with *8,000 annual births we mailed 2,462 surveys
to mothers who gave birth between May 2009 and April
2010. Mailings occurred at 4–5 months postpartum. Low
income mothers (those with a Medicaid-funded delivery
and/or prenatal WIC enrollment) were oversampled based
on a projected response rate of 35 % (rate for non-low
income was 55 %). Over 1,000 usable surveys were returned
and linked with birth certificate data. Target response rates
were achieved. 9.4 % of addresses for low income mothers
were undeliverable (vs. 4.2 % of non-low income). Both low
and non-low income respondents were more likely to be
over age 18 and White. After statistical adjustments the
survey dataset was demographically similar to the original
birth data. Personnel and non-personnel costs per usable
survey exceeded $20. Collecting local data using a modified
PRAMS methodology is feasible but requires expertise in
survey, data management and birth certificate data and local
knowledge about survey response patterns. These types of
data can serve to inform policy and program planning and
provide data to support relevant funding requests.