Texting Toward A Successful Pregnancy

Moms-to-be and new mothers now have a special tool created to help them navigate the confusion of pregnancy as well as their infants' first year: texted tips transmitted through their cell phones! This helpful service is sponsored by a company known as text4baby and is free of charge for the clients of the majority of wireless carrier companies in the United States.

Moms get up to 3 text messages each week. The information is coordinated according to a mother's due date or to the baby's birth date. The text messages continue through the 1st year of your baby's life.

User-Friendly Service

Signing up for this service is very user-friendly. The mother sends a one-word text message: BABY, or BEBE if the mother prefers text messages in Spanish. The text message is sent to 511411. Mothers then receive a prompt for entering either due dates or baby's birth date, along with the mother's zip code.

The first text message received by mothers-to-be urges pregnant women to see their physicians as soon as possible and encourages them to be strict about keeping each and every prenatal appointment throughout the pregnancy. Mothers are also cautioned not to consider these texted messages as a substitute for a doctor's recommendations or as any type of medical treatment.

The Concept

The text4baby concept was the brainchild of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB), and the project was granted approval by a variety of health professionals and several government experts. The focus of the text messages is to provide information on those topics that are essential to a healthy mother and baby, for instance: preventing birth defects; development guidelines; prenatal care; alcohol, cigarette, and drug use; breastfeeding; immunizations; exercise; labor and delivery; safe sleep; family violence; car seat safety; and a wealth of information on many other topics, as well.

The aim of the text4baby website service is to reduce the high premature birth rate within the U.S. Elizabeth Jordan states that half a million babies are born too soon and 28,000 of them will die before reaching their first birthdays. Jordan is a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and a board member of Health Mothers, Healthy Babies. Prof. Jordan says that half a million babies are born early and 28,000 die before their first birthdays.

The text4baby is an effort toward addressing the problem of premature delivery. The program sends more than 300 messages that pertain to the mother's current week of pregnancy or to the baby's age at the time the messages are sent.