Fighting the Flu One Text at a Time
Dec 04, 2013
This guest post was provided by Text4baby, a service of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition.
With 99% of all text messages being read and 90% read within the first 3 minutes, texting is a powerful tool to share information. Text4baby, the nation’s largest and only free mobile health service, provides free health and safety information to expecting and new moms in the convenience of a text message.
Women can sign up to receive three messages a week by
texting BABY (or BEBE for Spanish) to 511411.
The interactive messages are personalized to the mother’s due date or baby’s birth date. Topics include labor signs and symptoms, baby’s development, nutrition, safe sleep, breastfeeding, immunizations, appointment reminders, urgent public health alerts and other resources. Evaluation results show Text4baby is facilitating interaction with health providers, reminding participants of their appointments and immunizations, connecting participants with health services, and that Text4baby participants are three times more likely to feel prepared for motherhood than non-participants.
During flu season, Text4baby messages remind women to get vaccinated for their health and for the safety of their baby. Influenza is very dangerous to pregnant women and infants, and can cause premature labor, preterm birth, hospitalization and even death. The influenza vaccine is safe for expecting women and new moms and reduces the risk of this preventable disease. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend all persons in the U.S. older than 6 months be vaccinated. Infants younger than 6 months depend on the immunization of those around them for protection against the spread of the virus.
Text4baby’s goal is to reduce the number of barriers preventing women from getting a vaccination through tailored educational messages and appointment reminders. The messages are customized to each participant’s response on their intent to get the flu shot.
Sign up before December 9th to receive a free flu shot redemption code
courtesy of Text4baby and your local Rite Aid.
Furthering the goal of encouraging pregnant women and new moms to get vaccinated, Text4baby just announced Rite Aid as the first national retail partner of the service, and in celebration of the partnership, Rite Aid is providing 10,000 free flu shots to Text4baby mothers this flu season. OnDecember 12, Text4baby will send a message to any woman who signed up for the service prior to December 9. The message will contain a unique code for redeeming a free flu shot at any Rite Aid location.
Give the gift of knowledge and encourage all expecting and new moms you know to sign up for Text4baby. The service is easy to use, and most importantly, FREE.
Text BABY (or BEBE for Spanish) to 511411 to sign up today.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ0RFUlphu4]
Text4baby is a free service of the nonprofit National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, provided in partnership with Voxiva. Support from Founding Sponsor Johnson & Johnson allows Text4baby to implement the service and provide free materials and resources for over 1,100 partners nationwide. The service is free for participants thanks to The Wireless Foundation and participating mobile carriers.
To learn more, please visit www.text4baby.org.
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