SMS Gateways Help With Pregnancy

A new SMS service in the United States seeks to reduce the infant mortality rate with the help of SMS Gateways. What makes this information service via mobile so special?

Despite the possible discrepancies in data accuracy offered by a number of stats websites, one cannot deny the fact that infant mortality rates in themselves are a cause of both interest and concern, especially to those families expecting, or planning to have, a child in the near future. Information service, text4baby.org, is helping mothers increase the chances of a successful pregnancy by providing them with the information they need to maintain optimal health during their pregnancy. This is achieved with SMS messages relayed via an SMS Gateway to the mobile phone of the mother-to-be.

“Text4baby is a free mobile information service designed to promote maternal and child health. An educational program of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB), text4baby provides pregnant women and new moms with information they need to take care of their health and give their babies the best possible start in life.” The information mothers receive on their mobile phones is relevant to the stage of their pregnancy – if a woman is 28 weeks pregnant, she’ll receive information accordingly.

However it’s not the only one of its kind – a similar program named Pesinet is currently afoot in Mali. In Senegal the infant mortality rate fell from 120 per 1,000 births to 8 infant deaths per 1,000 births, as reported on textually.org back in 2007.

Solution for the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is ranked 22nd globally by the United Nations and 32nd by the CIA World Factbook according to 2009 estimates (via Wikipedia). Perhaps not the highest infant mortality rates in the world, but definitely something to take note of – figures governmental bodies are actively seeking to reduce through a variety of campaigns. One cannot help but wonder if SMS messages via the SMS gateway could be the ultimate platform to reach those who could make use of such an SMS-based information service, be it for pregnancy or any other type of medical condition. True, the above may be a bit biased in favour of the mobile. But statistics rarely lie.

Mobile penetration in the United Kingdom is already more than 100%. In fact, it is possible to say that more people own a mobile phone than, say, a television set in the United Kingdom. There are also, on average, more mobile phones per household than television sets. Should SMS text messaging through SMS Gateways be made an all but compulsory medium for campaigns that carry national interest? Perhaps.

SMS Gateway Expertise

The real problem, perhaps, is the implementation of the SMS gateway for mobile text messaging campaigns – something that many see as a feat that requires some form of extraordinary technical expertise. Yet while the potential exists to make it as technical and complicated as possible, the truth is that, in some cases, the only skill really needed is the composition and submission of a plain text email. This, as well as a number of other easy ways to send bulk SMS messages is made possible by application programming interfaces, specifically desgined to facilitate ease of use whilst providing the flexibility to provide optimal performance in virtually any software environment. This can help UK organisations implement an SMS solution to cater for all their communication needs and increase the efficiency of their campaigns.

For more information, visit our SMS gateway page.

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Tags: bulk SMS campaigns, sms gateway, sms gateways, SMS Service