On 1 p.m. April 29, 2013 San Diego County leaders will announce new partnerships with text4baby, the Alliance Healthcare Foundation, Council of Community Clinics and First Five San Diego to enroll more local women in the nation’s leading mobile health service for pregnant woman and new moms. Leaders will also kick-off a state-wide text4baby immunization reminder service to increase immunization rates in California and San Diego County. Final results from the University of California, San Diego and California State University San Marcos evaluation of text4baby demonstrates how it is positively changing health behaviors amongst pregnant women and new moms.

• Greg Cox, Chairman, San Diego County Board of Supervisors
• Nick Macchione, Director, San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency
• Nancy Sasaki, Executive Director, Alliance Healthcare Foundation
• Sandee Scott-Anders, Market Communications Manager – San Diego/Las Vegas/Hawaii, AT&T
• Cricket Wireless Representative, Cricket Wireless (TBD)
• Maria Isabel Rocha, a text4baby mom

Of the more than 44,000 babies born in 2011 in San Diego County, 9.4 % were preterm births, nearly 17% received late or no prenatal care and 6.5% were born at low birth weight. The 2011 San Diego Report Card for Children and Families documented that local county child immunization rates have dropped below the national objective to 77% of children fully immunized by age three. Text4baby is a free SMS information service that delivers three text messages per week through pregnancy and baby’s first year, tailored to the moms due date and the developmental stage of the child. Women sign up by texting BABY or BEBE (for Spanish) to 511411 and entering their due date or the child’s birthday and zip code.  Since 2010, text4baby has been able to send over 800,000 health tips to more than 6,300 new and expectant San Diego County moms with essential health information and access to San Diego County health services.

Location

• County Administration Center
• 1600 Pacific Highway
• San Diego, CA 92101 (East side of building, outside)

About text4baby:

Text4baby is the nation’s only free mobile information service designed to promote maternal and child health through text messaging. A free program of the nonprofit National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB), the Founding Sponsor is Johnson & Johnson. Founding partners include Voxiva, CTIA – The Wireless Foundation, and Grey Healthcare Group (a WPP company).Text4baby’s public-private partnership also includes over 900 national, state and local organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The messages address topics such as immunization, nutrition, birth defect prevention, safe sleep, and developmental milestones. Text4baby is the largest national mobile health initiative reaching over 500,000 moms since launch in 2010. The San Diego text4baby Coalition includes the San Diego Health & Human Services Agency, First Five San Diego, Council of Community Clinics, Children’s Initiative, Alliance Healthcare Foundation, and others.  To learn more, please visit text4baby.org.