Healthy Babies Through Texting

We've heard alot about how mobile technology, specifically SMS text, has played a critical role in the Haiti earthquake disaster response.  We've highlighted it in our blogs and other posts.  But in our own backyard, there are many emerging uses for simple texting that play an increasingly important role in the everyday lives of people with critical needs.  Text4baby is a new service launched by the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition that provides timely health updates to pregnant women through birth and the the first year of motherhood. Text4baby is a free service that sends health tips in the form of text messages to registered users timed to match with mom's pregnancy stage and later, baby's age.  The service and partnership between HMHB, Voxiva, major telecom carriers and consumer health companies to subsidize the costs of the texts, was announced by Annesh Chopra, White House Chief Technology Officer last week at a national health IT conference.  According to the Washington Post, the service registered 6,500 users on the first day, and is signing on people at the rate of 250 per hour. At a time when funding cuts and the lack of certainty about healthcare reform overwhelm, the text4baby service is an example of how simple technology solutions can leapfrog policy and politics, and easily make a direct impact on the health of thousands of women and children today.