Wireless industry targets pregnant women with m-health initiative

Fresh off a successful mobile giving campaign that has raised more than $35 million for Haitians, the wireless industry is embarking on another goodwill campaign, this time targeting pregnant women with a text messages that offer free advice to mothers-to-be.
“Text4baby provides participants with three free SMS text messages every week. Content is determined by either the mother’s due date for prenatal information or the baby’s birth date for tips about postnatal care. Women opt in to the program by texting BABY (or BEBE for Spanish) to 511411. They then will receive messages focused on a variety of topics essential to maternal and child health, including birth defect prevention, immunization, nutrition, seasonal flu, mental health, oral health and safe sleep. Text4baby messages also connect women to prenatal and infant care services and other resources,” according to Syniverse, which is delivering the SMS services free of charge. Participating wireless carriers also are offering their services for free.
The educational campaign is an initiative of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, and includes support from a broad range of public and private sponsorships. Voxiva is providing the mobile health platform.