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New Text4Baby Campaign
The US government announced a new national campaign today called Text4Baby that will use cellphones and text messaging as a means to get healthy mother, healthy baby tips out to millions of expectant mothers all over the country. The campaign is being sponsored by several organizations and companies including the National Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition, Voxiva, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Wellpoint and Blue Cross Blue Shield; and wireless carriers have agreed to waive all charges associated with receiving these text messages.
The goal of the campaign is to reach as many expectant mothers as possible and to use these periodic “healthy pregnancy” text messages to keep women informed about the things they should and shouldn’t be doing during pregnancy in order to help keep themselves and their babies healthy. The hope is that through these text messages women will be encouraged to eat healthier, exercises more and seek proper prenatal care, as well as provide encouragement and support to quit bad habits like smoking and drinking during pregnancy. A woman who has a healthy pregnancy and partakes in a healthy lifestyle during her pregnancy is much less likely to give birth prematurely and is more likely to have a healthy baby.
In the United States over half a million babies are born prematurely every year and every year almost 30, 000 babies die before their first birthday. Sadly, the United States ranks 30th worldwide in infant mortality, falling behind many other developed nations. The hope is that programs like Text4Baby will help women, especially low income women and those without health insurance, get the information they need to keep themselves and their babies healthy during pregnancy which will hopefully translate into fewer premature births and a fewer infant deaths.
The program is completely free to sign up for, and as stated above most cell phone carriers are waiving the fees associated with receiving these text messages. Visit Text4Baby.org to learn more about the program and sign up.
What an interesting idea. It is a step in the right direction. New moms can never get too much information. It should be priority to promote healthy moms and healthy babies. The U.S.’s high infant mortality rate is alarming. This information needs to cross social class boundaries. It will be interesting to see how successful the program is. A lot of times programs, like this one, become available to the public, but they aren’t promoted. This leads to underuse of helpful initiatives. We should pass the word on. Thanks!
Kati,
Thanks for the comment. I agree that programs like this often do go under used. I hope that since this program is getting widespread attention and cell phone companies are waiving the fees people will be more inclined to sign up. The idea of the program is to reach those segments of the population, ie lower income and minority groups, that often aren’t reached by most campaigns. I can’t wait to see the outcome, I hope it is fantastic.