Text4baby Service

In September 2013, Text4baby, a free service of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition named Rite Aid as its first national retail partner. In celebration of the new partnership, Rite Aid provided 10,000 free flu shots to Text4baby mothers during the 2013 flu season. Pregnant women and new moms who were enrolled in the service received a free flu shot code redeemable at their local Rite Aid pharmacy. This promotion supported Text4baby’s annual flu messaging and reminders sent to participants about the importance of flu vaccination. The goal of these messages is to reduce the number of barriers preventing women from getting a vaccination. These collective efforts were also detailed during the fall publisher briefing – Protecting Pregnant Moms and Babies this Flu Season with CDC, Families Fighting Flu and the March of Dimes and were featured on flu blog Shot of Prevention and About.com.

Women sign up by texting BABY or BEBE to 511411 to receive three free text messages per week throughout their pregnancy and baby’s first year. The messages are personalized to the mother’s due date or baby’s birth date on topics including: nutrition, safe sleep, developmental milestones and more. Evaluation results from a California State University San Marcos/University of California San Diego study of Text4baby participants show Text4baby facilitates increased communication with health providers, effectively reminds women of their appointments, and informs women of medical warning signs they didn’t know. A separate George Washington University study found that Text4baby moms feel three times more prepared for motherhood than non-Text4baby participants.

For more information, email Rachel Griffith, Communications Manager for Text4baby at rgriffith@hmhb.org or call 703-797-1945.