While at the reception for the Young Mothers @ The Margin launch last Thursday, I met these two beauties you see in the photo above, representing Text4Baby, the brand-new initiative from the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition.
You might have heard of it by now, but in a nutshell: Text4Baby sends up to three weekly text messages to pregnant women and new moms, to give them access to local resources and information on common questions they might have. So far, more than 23,000 women have signed up for the service.
What kind of info does it provide? Pretty much everything you can think of: immunization, nutrition, seasonal flu, prenatal care, emotional well being, drugs and alcohol, labor and delivery, smoking cessation, breastfeeding, mental health, birth defects prevention, oral health, car seat safety, exercise and fitness, developmental milestones, safe sleep, family violence, and more.
As a tech geek, I thought it was really cool to have this be a nationwide service, provided FREE of charge to anyone with a valid cell phone number. (For those of you who get charged for each individual text, this service is still free to you. Your cell phone provider should NOT be charging you for the texts.)
Any of my readers currently pregnant or with their newborn at home? Simply text BABY (or BEBE for Spanish) to 511411 and you’re enrolled in the weekly updates, which are timed to your due date or the date of birth. The program lasts for up to the first year of your child’s life, so if you’ve grown accustomed to the weekly doses of helpful information, it doesn’t leave you in a lurch once the child is born.
I wish this had been around when I was pregnant – I would have definitely used it. What do you think? Is Text4Baby something you’d like to use or wish you would have been able to when you were expecting?
Wow. That’s a really cool resource. Yes. That would have been really cool to have when I was pregnant with my daughter. I did a pretty good job of staying on top of my stuff, BUT, you can NEVER have too many sources of support as a young mommy or young mommy-to-be.
@Ms. Bar B – No, I don’t think you can be TOO on top of it.
Thanks for the shout-out, Tara!
At first glance, I didn’t recognize myself, I thought- who is the girl on the blog that looks JUST LIKE ME?
@Melissa – LOL! Yeah, I’ve done that before. Like hey, who took my picture, even though I was fully aware when the photo was taken….
Thanks for this information but I guess this will still be around when I plan to get pregnant 2 years from now.
This is such a wonderful idea especially that there are lots of things that run in your mind when you are pregnant, which are all equally important. Instant replies like this will surely address your concerns at once…
Great service!
@Christina – Yeah, I wish this had been around when I was pregnant with my first 3.5 years ago. It would have been an awesome resource….
Some interesting characters on the Tan today – a couple running in their togs, and one fella using a ‘Baby Bjorn’ to carry his dog