Bayhealth helps promote keeping moms and babies safe

As a member of the Delaware Perinatal Quality Collaborative, Bayhealth is participating in a campaign with the Division of Public Health to raise awareness and promote the importance of completing the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System survey.

The main component of the campaign is giving free PRAMS branded goodie bags to new moms at Bayhealth Hospital, Kent and Sussex campuses. Each bag contains items for both mom and baby, such as masks, onesies and drinking cups.

PRAMS, which is a collaborative project between DPH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and its related survey collects data on a mom’s habits before, during and immediately after pregnancy as well as information about the community she lives in. It also captures barriers to care so they can be addressed in order for all women in the state to be provided with appropriate care. The survey is mailed to a select number of moms shortly after they give birth.

“The information gathered from the PRAMS survey is very valuable. It drives our planning and the care we provide to the patients in our community to help ensure we're doing all we can to keep our mothers and babies safe and healthy before, during, and after pregnancy. So anything we can do – such as giving out these branded PRAMS items – to reinforce that and encourage mothers to complete the survey is great," said Dr. Garrett H.C. Colmorgen, Bayhealth maternal-fetal medicine physician.

JoEllen Kimmey, treatment program administrator for DPH’s Healthy Women Healthy Babies Program, said although the number of women who receive a survey is relatively small, the PRAMS data has a big impact on improving health outcomes for both moms and babies across the state. That’s why it’s so important that all women who receive the survey complete it. “We thought if we shared these PRAMS gift bags and items with moms, they would be more inclined to complete the survey if they were to receive it in the mail,” said Kimmey.

For more information, go to dhss.delaware.gov, dethrives.com and Bayhealth.org/Womens-Childrens-Health.

For more information about the DPQC, visit Bayhealth.org/Womens-Childrens-Health to learn more about Bayhealth’s Women’s & Children’s Services.