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In an innovative effort to address a public health issue, the White House Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra, has spearheaded a project help pregnant women in the United States. During a planning session at the National Health IT summit, held in Washington, D.C., Chopra announced the launch of Text4Baby, a free service that “provides timely and expert health information through SMS text messages to pregnant women and new moms through their babies’ first year.” The U.S. infant mortality rate is considered a public health crisis. More than 500,000 premature babies are born every year in the U.S., and approximately 28,000 babies die before reaching the age of one. Text4Baby aims to help new mothers care for their children, and reduce the infant mortality rate.
Text4Baby provides those who sign up for the service with at least three text messages per week, and addresses issues and experiences pregnant women and new mothers may be facing. It offers suggestions and reminders of things mothers can do to keep their babies healthy, such as regular check-ups at the doctor and proper nutrition.
The service is available to all pregnant women, regardless of age, or insurance or financial status. The service started off slowly with just 80 subscribers until it was mentioned by Dr. Drew on the popular MTV television show “Teen Mom.” After that episode aired, about 1,200 signed up, and the number quickly increased to 3,400, and continues to grow.
The text messages sent by the service aren’t just random bits of advice, either. They have been carefully crafted by a collaboration of several major health companies and organizations, such as Healthy Babies Coalition, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, the White House Office of Science and Technology, and George Washington University, to name just a few.
In addition, the service is being provided free of charge for the first two years by all four major carriers—Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile—as well as eleven other carriers, including Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA.
To sign up, all expectant mothers have to do is text BABY to 511411. To receive texts in Spanish, they can also text BEBE to the same number.
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