Mobile Health Advice for New/Pregnant Moms

Speaker of the House Christopher G. Donovan (D- Meriden) and State Representative Diana Urban (D-North Stonington/Stonington), House Chair of the Select Committee On Children, encouraged participation in the Text4baby program, which delivers mobile health information to pregnant women and new moms.

By simply texting “Baby” (or “BEBE” for information in Spanish) to 511411, women can register to receive weekly text messages, timed to their individual due dates or their baby’s birth date throughout their pregnancy and baby’s first year.

Speaker Donovan praised the program, saying, “We know that good maternal health is critical to ensuring healthy babies. Test4baby’s innovative outreach methods will help Connecticut women access the information they need to give their kids a good start.”

“Low birth weight babies are one of our main health concerns,” Rep. Urban said. “Not only do they cost the state countless dollars, but because of the lack of universal intervention leads to untreated developmental delays and health problems cause even more heartbreak.

The ability for moms to access critical information in a quick convenient format is a great advance and should help moms carry to term. Text4baby program has great promise and I look forward to gathering data on the results for our Children’s Report Card.”

From now until October 2011, Test4baby is holding a State Enrollment Contest throughout the nation to help spread the word about the program and improve maternal and infant health. The top three states to enroll the most users between now and the end of October will be announced at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Washington, DC in November.

Lily Gagliardi, Founder and CEO of Lily’s Kids Inc., state lead agency for Text4baby, has been an integral part of the Text4baby process. She attended the Text4baby partner information sharing session in Washington DC earlier this year representing Connecticut along with representatives from eight other states.

Gagliardi said,“This is an innovative, evidence based, free text messaging service designed to provide health education for pregnant women and mothers of infants. It has been a pleasure working with our Connecticut state partners to help get the word out about this program.”

For more information, contact info@lilykidsinc.org or visit text4baby.org.