text4baby www.text4baby.org

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text4babywww.text4baby.org

• Paula Curran, PHN, MHA
• Nurse Consultant III
• MCAH Division

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What is text4baby?

• Educational program of the National Healthy
  Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB)
• Free mobile information service designed to
  promote maternal and child health
• Provides pregnant women and new moms with
  information on how to take care of themselves and
  their babies

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text4baby Goals

• Demonstrate the potential of mobile health
  technology to
• maternal and child health
• reach underserved populations with critical
  health information
• Develop a base of evidence on the efficacy of
  mobile health interventions
• Catalyze new models for public-private
  partnerships in the area of mobile health

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Text4baby Partners

• text4baby is made possible through a broad
  public-private partnership that includes
  government, corporations, academic institutions,
  professional associations, tribal agencies and
  non-profit organizations

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Why Go Mobile?(From National text4baby
Presentation)

• 90 of Americans have cell phones
• 18 of U.S. households are mobile-only
• 1 trillion short message service (SMS) messages
  sent in U.S. in 2008
• Mobile phones are important in reaching the main
  target audience for text4baby
• Younger women
• Lower-income women
• Women of color
• Many more of these women have phone than Internet
  access and an overwhelming percentage use SMS

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What is text4baby?

• Launched nationally on February 4, 2010
• Provides free text messages to pregnant women and
  new mothers on topics such as
• Maternal and child health
• Prevention of birth defects
• Immunizations and seasonal flu
• Nutrition
• Mental health
• Substance use
• Safe sleep and infant safety
• Resource information for prenatal and infant care

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What is text4baby?

• The messages are timed to a womans due date and
  continue for the first year of the babys life
• Sign up for the service by texting BABY (or BEBE
  for Spanish) to 51114111
• The service collects phone number, zip code and
  due date or the babys birth date

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Sample Pregnancy Messages

• Starter message - For a healthy baby, visit a
  doctor or midwife early keep all of your
  appointments. Hear your babys heartbeat. See how
  fast she grows!
• Week 24 Call your doctor right away if you have
  signs of preterm labor cramps, belly tightening,
  low back pain, bleeding or watery pink/brown
  discharge.

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Sample Infant Messages

• Newborn Keeping babys umbilical cord uncovered
  dry helps it heal. Let the stump fall off on
  its own. Give your baby a sponge bath until the
  stump falls off.
• Month 6 Your baby is 6 months old! She should
  recognize faces, take turns talking with you,
  roll both ways, sit even try to stand bounce
  with support.

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How is text4baby Being Evaluated?

• Recently, HRSA awarded a grant to Mathematica to
  evaluate the program over the next 2 years
• Looking at the impact of text4baby and the
  effectiveness of mobile health technology in
  delivering quality healthcare information to
  underserved populations

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text4baby Outreach Partners

• Sign an MOU with the HMHB Coalition agreeing to
  abide by graphics guidelines and promote the
  service
• Partners receive access to the logo and Adobe
  InDesign art files for customization, recognition
  on the website and free promotional materials
  while supplies last
• There are no costs associated with being a partner

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Examples of Promotional Activities

• Add text4baby information to your website
• Including text4baby information in mailings,
  listserv or newsletters
• Display posters promoting text4baby
• Promote text4baby through public health or
  wellness campaigns
• Encouraging use among your employees

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Examples of Promotional Activities

• Text4baby has a weekly Tuesday
• e-newsletter
• Receive weekly updates about the program,
  enrollment information, media coverage and
  partner activities
• http//eepurl.com/h9h3

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text4baby Activities in California (Data
Provided by text4baby)

• As of October 22, 2010, California had an average
  of 1.0 of total enrollees (weighted by average
  expected pregnancies per year)
• As of October 22, 2010, California had 7,810
  enrollees

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text4baby Activity in California (Data Provided
by text4baby)
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text4baby Activity in California(provided by
Text4Baby)
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text4baby Activities in California

• text4baby enrollees are given the State MCAH
  Toll-Free telephone number to call for assistance
• The calls are answered at the State and referred
  to a Nurse Consultant (NC)
• The NC contacts the caller and refers her/him to
  their local MCAH Toll-Free telephone number
• Local MCAH Programs follow-up on enrollee needs
  or questions

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Local text4baby Activities

• San Diego County
• Mono County
• San Luis Obispo

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Thank You!General Inquiriesinfo_at_text4baby.org