Maternal & Newborn Health: A localized text4baby service to include local San Diego information

Basic prenatal education and early prenatal care have been shown to improve maternal and child well-being, yet they are not getting to the women most in need. Of 46,000 pregnant women in San Diego County (SD) each year, 19%of all women and 23% of Hispanic women do not obtain early prenatal care. While low-income women have the least access to prenatal and maternal services, the vast majority have cell phones. Cell phones are particularly important in reaching and engaging low-income and underserved populations and are an effective method for providing health education and overcoming geographic and linguistic barriers. Text4baby (T4B), a national, bilingual mobile health service provides prenatal/postnatal information and resources via text message to improve maternal and infant health.To increase the effectiveness of T4B in reaching SD women and connecting them to care, a coalition of partners in SD is 1) customizing T4B to include local health resources in lieu of national “1-800” numbers 2) assessing the cultural and linguistic appropriateness of Spanish messages and 3) evaluating the service. A mixed methods approach is being employed to evaluate 1) user satisfaction 2) behavior and knowledge related to prenatal, postpartum and infant health, and 3) the potential impact that customization has on reducing barriers to accessing care and resources available to the diverse SD community. The presentation will share lessons learned, preliminary results from the evaluation, and a model on how to develop and launch a customized T4B service aimed at improving the health of vulnerable and underserved communities.