Stories From Experts
Dr. Olayiwola
Community Health Center, Inc.
Dr. Olayiwola is the Chief Medical Officer at Community Health Center Inc. in Connecticut. Text4baby has been a wonderful, timely, and patient-centered service for me in my prenatal and postpartum periods. As a physician and public health professional, I appreciate the importance of patient education at such an important time in one’s life, but what text4baby does is deliver traditional education through a modern vehicle. This is done in a way that is personalized, relevant, and concise, so it is very user-friendly.
If we can reach women using what they do already, it’s natural. Most of our mothers these days have text messaging and they communicate via text. Why not just reach them the way they like to be reached? That’s why I think it’s an important program. I think text4baby is so empowering because just imagine the power that you give a young woman or a mother who is really not familiar with being pregnant. You give her a message on her cell phone and she can go to her midwife or to her doctor next time and say, “I was told that I need to ask you about this.” That is so empowering because she’s getting accurate health information, coming to her cell phone, but it gives her something to start a conversation. I strongly encourage any woman who is pregnant or postpartum to enroll – those gentle reminders, provided at specific stages of pregnancy or infant development, are always right on time!
