New service texts moms health tips during pregnancy and baby's first year
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- HealthPartners is now an outreach partner of text4baby –a new free mobile information service that provides timely health information to pregnant women and new moms from pregnancy through a baby’s first year.
Women who sign up for the service by texting BABY to 511411 (or BEBE for Spanish) receive three free text messages each week timed to their due date or baby’s date of birth. These messages focus on a variety of topics critical to maternal and child health, including birth defects prevention, immunization, nutrition, seasonal flu, mental health, oral health and safe sleep. Text4baby messages also connect women to prenatal and infant care services and other resources. The message recipients are not charged for the texts. The service is open to anyone, including all HealthPartners members and patients.
“This program is an easy-to-use, just-in-time, practical way for new moms to get the information they need,” said Mary Brainerd, HealthPartners president and CEO. “Texting is one of the main ways women communicate, and this especially helps us support young women and our Spanish-speaking mothers.”
Text4baby is an educational program of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB). It is made possible through an unprecedented public-private partnership which includes the White House Office on Science and Technology Policy, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense Military Health System and a number of corporate sponsors.
HealthPartners will help promote text4baby through its CareLine, a 24/7 health and information line staffed by registered nurses, and BabyLine, a CareLine service that focuses on the special needs of expectant and new parents.
HealthPartners future Web-based releases include a mobile program designed for Expectant mothers at risk for a difficult pregnancy who will be able to choose to access a two-way messaging service while still receiving a customized treatment plan over their phone from a HealthPartners care manager. The Healthy Pregnancy Program is designed to improve health outcomes for pregnant women while reducing medical complications and health care costs.
Each year in the U.S., more than 500,000 babies are born prematurely and an estimated 28,000 children die before their first birthday. 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 rising.
Research shows that while 90 percent of Americans have a mobile phone, fewer have access to the Internet, and texting is more prevalent among women of childbearing age.
About HealthPartners
Founded in 1957, the HealthPartners (www.healthpartners.com) family of health care companies is the largest consumer-governed, nonprofit health care organization in the nation. For the fifth year in a row, HealthPartners is rated one of the best commercial health plans in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, NCQA’s “America’s Best Health Insurance Plans 2009-10.” The HealthPartners family of health plans includes HealthPartners, Inc., Group Health Plan, Inc., HealthPartners Insurance Company, and HealthPartners Administrators, Inc.
CONTACT:
HealthPartners
Paul Moore, 952-883-5366
[email protected]
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