text4baby - Local Organizations and Advocates

2015 State Enrollment Contest

The 2015 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest winners were announced and honored during the Martha May Eliot Luncheon on November 2 at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Chicago. The event is the nation’s largest public health meeting.

About the Contest

The contest ran from May 10 to October 17, 2015. During this time, states competed to enroll as many participants as possible in the service. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands were eligible to compete.

Timeline

Throughout the contest, states with the highest Text4baby enrollment over seven days were identified as the Weekly Winners in Text4baby Tuesday. The states that enrolled the most users (as a proportion of live births in their state) between May 10 and October 17, 2015 became the overall contest winners.

Metrics

The population-adjusted rate of NEW Text4baby enrollment (enrollment just during the Contest Period) using 2013 live birth data from CDC (the most recently available data for all states) to approximate the number of NEW pregnancies and NEW infants for each state, were used to determine winners of the 2015 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest.

We had three groups of states and members of each group competing against one another. The groups were determined based on the overall distribution of 2013 live births with the goal of having states with similar numbers of estimated NEW pregnancies and NEW infants competing against each other. The Large State Category included all states with live births in the upper quartile (highest 25%). The Medium State Category included all states with live births in the middle 50%. The Small State Category included all states with live births in the lower quartile (lowest 25%).

1) Small State Category: States with the lowest number of live births:

WV, HI, ME, NH, MT, SD, DE, RI, AK, DC, ND, WY, VT

2) Medium State Category: States with live births in between:

IN, AZ, TN, MO, MD, MA, WI, MN, CO, LA, AL, SC, KY, OK, UT, OR, PR, MS, KS, AR, IA, CT, NV, NM, NE, ID

3) Large State Category: States with the highest number of live births:

CA, TX, NY, FL, IL, PA, OH, GA, NC, MI, NJ, VA, WA

This approach balanced the distribution of live births and provides states with the fairest possible opportunity to win, given the wide variation in live birth rates across the country.

Resources

2015 Contest Guidelines

TV PSAs

Radio PSAs

Sample Social Media Posts

TEAM Text4baby

Read about the 2015 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest winners:

Large State Category: Virginia

Virginia has been a strong advocate of Text4baby since the program launched. A coalition of Virginia Text4baby partners from various state agencies joined together to promote the service and their interest was invigorated by Text4baby’s inclusion in Virginia Department of Health’s Infant Mortality Strategic Plan and participation in the Collaborative Innovation Network (COIN) initiative. The Department of Health customized the Text4baby service by including state-specific resources within the messages, as well as sharing monthly ad-hoc messages on topics of interest including prevention of child abuse, smoking cessation and more. Virginia Premier also partnered and promoted the service by providing free cell phones and connecting several hundred members to Text4baby. Read the full cast study here.

Medium State Category: Oklahoma

Thanks to the innovation of partners in Oklahoma, the state currently has the highest rate of enrollment for Text4baby in the country. Oklahoma Health Care Authority has been integrating Text4baby enrollment into its outreach and enrollment efforts with pregnant women and caretakers of infants, including implementing an automatic notification process via text message for members to easily opt-in to receive Text4baby messages. Since this process began, more than 10,000 SoonerCare members have opted to enroll through this process. Additionally, state partners have continued to reach moms with the service through a variety of media and advertisement outlets, during prenatal and pediatric appointments, in birthing hospitals, in WIC clinics, in faith-based organizations and through community outreach events. Sixty-five organizations in Oklahoma have partnered with Text4baby to help reach pregnant women and families with critical health and development information, including the OHCA, Oklahoma State Health Department, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, hospitals, and local health departments. Read the full case study here.

Small State Category: South Dakota

Throughout the competition, South Dakota consistently held one of the top spots of Text4baby enrollment among the small states. Led by the South Dakota Department of Health, moms are primarily enrolled through targeted promotional strategies by the State WIC and Bright Start Home Visiting programs. Resource folders including Text4baby materials have also been available at SDDOH for public health nurses and staff eager to make contact and share more information about the service with local providers across the state. Recently the service was promoted at the annual South Dakota Perinatal Association conference in September and at many other community events. Read the full case study here.

Click here to see a press release announcing the contest winners.

Free Text4baby App!

The Text4baby app provides an additional way for participants to access key information beyond the character limit of text messages. As a complementary tool to the SMS service, the free app offers additional content and interactive features that enhance the overall Text4baby experience.

We know that pregnant women and moms want even more information from Text4baby, and the information in the app builds upon Text4baby text messages by letting mom dive deeper into topics and allowing her to look ahead to learn about what's to come during her pregnancy or baby's first year. Moms who download the app (who are not already receiving the text messages) will automatically get signed up for the texting service as well.

App Features:

A weekly planning list of medical, developmental and lifestyle calendar items.
Polls that allow participants to see how other moms respond to topics like pregnancy symptoms, infant development and emotional experiences.
Appointment reminders scheduled via the app that will be sent through the text message service.
Helpful health hotlines and community resources.

Why now? Did you know that when Text4baby was launched in 2010, only 25% of our target audience of moms used a smartphone, whereas 89% percent of women in America owned a cell phone? Times have changed though, and according to the Pew Research Center, 57% of women in the US currently own a smartphone. With this dramatic increase of access to smartphones, we feel that now is the perfect time to offer an app to moms most in need; a benefit providing detailed information and support to help them through their pregnancy and baby’s first year.

App Results:

The app launched nationally on November 10, 2014, and is free to download from the iTunes and Google Play app stores. Over 22,000 participants have downloaded the app since we launched, and we've been getting great feedback!

Julia D. said, "Text4baby is the best pregnancy app I've seen so far!"

Heather F. said, "I love this app! Being a new mom, this app has helped answer tons of my questions. It also allows me to see what to expect. Try it out, you have nothing to lose!"

Josh K. said, "Dads like me will love this! As an expecting dad and working full-time, the information is helpful to prepare me for the new addition to our family. I really like the signs of labor topic."