WASHINGTON – In honor of Mother’s Day and National Women’s Health Week, Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) will host a briefing on the text4baby program and the innovative way the program provides critical health and safety information in a text-length format on Thursday, May 17 from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. in Room 215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The briefing will gather leading maternal and child health experts to discuss how increasing access to health care through the innovative use of technology reduces birth complications and infant mortality, leading to better and more affordable health outcomes.

The panel will also feature a text4baby user who will share her experience with the program and how patient engagement is vital to text4baby’s success. A question and answer session, including the opportunity for press questions, will follow panelists’ introductory remarks.

Text4baby is a free text-messaging service that provides prenatal advice and healthy lifestyle tips to expecting mothers and fathers. The advice is tailored to the woman’s projected due date and tips are sent three times a week in English or Spanish until the baby reaches 1 year of age. As the largest and first free health text messaging service in the U.S., text4baby is working with over 750 public and private partners, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), with the goal of increasing prenatal health care knowledge and reducing our country’s infant mortality rate.

Text4baby’s founding partners include National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, Voxiva, CTIA – The Wireless Foundation, and Grey Healthcare Group (a WPP company) and its founding sponsor is Johnson & Johnson. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) joins text4baby as a supporting partner.

WHAT:

Senators to host briefing and Q&A on text4baby program

WHO:

Hosted by:

U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.)

U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.)

U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.)

U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.)

Participating panelists:

Natasha Robinson, Michigan Primary Care Association

Scott C. Ratzan, MD, MPA, Vice President, Global Health Government Affairs & Policy, Johnson & Johnson

Steve Largent, President & CEO, CTIA-The Wireless Association

Lissa A.Sirois, RD, IBCLC (invited), Breastfeeding Coordinator, WIC Nutrition Program

Bureau of Healthy Eating and Physical Activity New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

Yvette LaCoursiere, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Reproductive Medicine

WHEN:

Thursday, May 17

2:30-4:00 p.m.

*Audience and press Q&A will follow panelists’ remarks

WHERE:

Dirksen Senate Office Building

Senate Finance Room 215

Constitution Avenue and 1st Street NE

Washington, DC 20002

CONTACT:

To RSVP for the event, please contact Kathleen Murphy at kmurphy@hmhb.org. Please indicate if you are attending as a member of the media.

*RSVP by COB May 16

ONLINE:

Twitter: Follow the conversation using @mytext4baby, @SenatorCarper, @SenLandrieu, and @KellyAyotte, and by using the hash tag #text4baby.

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