Megan Johnson enjoys the simple everyday joys of motherhood. She receives important health care information through text4baby, an innovative mobile service for expectant and new mothers.
 

For mothers with limited access to the health and social support services they need, Text4baby – the first ever free mobile health service in the United States – provides timely and expert health information via SMS text messages during pregnancy and through their baby’s first year. Text4baby messages also connect women to local prenatal and infant care services and resources.

The infant mortality rate in the U.S. is one of the highest in the industrialized world, and for the first time since the 1950s, that rate is on the rise. Each year, more than 500,000 babies are born prematurely and an estimated 28,000 children die before their first birthday—signifying a public health crisis. Prematurity is often cited as being a leading cause of infant mortality. Key predictors of a child’s chances for survival are birth weight and gestational age.

The text4baby initiative, launched in 2010, was an unprecedented public-private partnership to address the rising U.S. infant mortality rate. Johnson & Johnson is a founding partner of text4baby along with the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, Voxiva, CTIA – The Wireless Foundation and Grey Healthcare Group. U.S. government partners include the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Department of Health and Human Services. BabyCenter, LLC, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, served as a development partner.

Women can sign up for the service by texting BABY to 511411 (or BEBE for Spanish). They will receive text messages, free of charge, that are timed to their due date or baby’s date of birth.