{"id":1622,"date":"2015-06-29T11:47:10","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T15:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/?p=1622"},"modified":"2025-01-28T09:18:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:18:54","slug":"text-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2015\/06\/text-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Text Support"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young homeless mothers learn critical lessons in prenatal and infant care through a texting program introduced by the College of Nursing’s Maureen Byrnes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Having a baby can be a bewildering experience for anyone. But if you\u2019re young and homeless, the prospect can be downright terrifying. Motherhood prompts so many questions, and trustworthy information can be hard to find.<\/p>\n

\"TextSupport300x121\"<\/a>In spring 2013, Maureen Byrnes, an assistant nursing professor and certified nurse midwife, launched a project to make the experience a little less daunting. Byrnes helped new mothers, ages 18-21, at a Newark homeless shelter enroll in a service that provides text messages about how to keep babies healthy, before and after birth.<\/p>\n

Text4baby, which launched in 2010, is an education campaign designed to promote maternal and child health. Women receive three free texts a week, with messages timed to match the woman\u2019s due date or the baby\u2019s date of birth and continue through the baby\u2019s first year of life.<\/p>\n

So a woman in her first trimester might receive this message: \u201cMorning sickness may be caused by a change in your hormones. Try eating crackers or dry cereal.<\/p>\n

Eat small meals often. Don\u2019t go without eating.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new mom, on the other hand, might receive a text that says, \u201cYour baby\u2019s mouth needs cleaning now \u2014 even before the first tooth! Wipe your baby\u2019s gums each day with a wet washcloth or use a soft baby toothbrush.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Byrnes first learned about Text4baby as a student in Seton Hall\u2019s doctoral nursing program, she was intrigued. She and her students began offering their clients the option to enroll. One morning, as Byrnes was driving to Seton Hall, a new idea came to her. Why not make it accessible to homeless women?<\/p>\n

No one had implemented Text4baby within a homeless population before. But Byrnes could already see the potential benefits. \u201cIt\u2019s a perfect platform to get evidence-based health information to them in a manner they\u2019ll utilize,\u201d she says. \u201cYou could hand a young mother a brochure; that doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s going to read it. But they do read text messages,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Byrnes had also recently learned a striking statistic: African-American babies born in New Jersey are 3.5 times as likely to die before their first birthday as white infants. This disparity exists, at least in part, because of a lack of access to health information.<\/p>\n

Between May and August 2014, Byrnes made weekly visits to Covenant House, a homeless shelter in Newark, and Raphael\u2019s Life House, an affiliated residence for new or expectant mothers in nearby Elizabeth. She met with pregnant women and new mothers to talk to them about the service and recruit them to join. For the women who didn\u2019t already have mobile phones, Byrnes connected them with a federal assistance program that provides\u00a0cellphones to people who are eligible.<\/p>\n

When Byrnes proposed the project to Meghan Leigh, associate site director of Covenant House, Leigh wasn\u2019t sure if Text4baby would appeal to the women at the shelter. She need not have worried. \u201cThe girls weren\u2019t hesitant,\u201d she says. Of the 12 women eligible for enrollment at Raphael\u2019s Life House, 10 signed up. \u201cI thought that was astounding,\u201d Byrnes says. What\u2019s more, nine of those moms agreed to become ambassadors and share the service with others.<\/p>\n

The messages seem to have a real impact, and Leigh says she was surprised to hear women referencing the texts. For example, a mother might tell a staff member, \u201cText4baby reminded me I have to get the baby shots, so can you help me make an appointment?\u201d<\/p>\n

Text messages can\u2019t provide all the information these young women need, Leigh says. But they provide some basic education. \u201cIt keeps them mindful,\u201d she says. \u201cIt proved to be really beneficial to our young mothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, part of the project\u2019s success might be due to Byrnes. The women seemed to respond to her, Leigh says. \u201cThey felt really loved, and she really wrapped her arms around them to make them feel confident about their mothering and their parenting abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

In February, Byrnes presented her findings at the Care4 International Scientific Nursing and Midwifery Congress at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.<\/p>\n

For Byrnes, the project was a chance to give back to people living in the community where she was raised. Byrnes grew up in Newark, too. She was never expected to go to college, let alone receive a doctorate degree. \u201cEducation changes everything. This project is a full circle \u2014 a gift of gratitude for everything I\u2019ve been given,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Cassandra Willyard is a freelance writer in Madison, Wisconsin.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Young homeless mothers learn critical lessons in prenatal and infant care through a texting program.<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingText Support<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":1685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[258,5,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-2015-2019","category-faculty","category-features","entry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3698,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions\/3698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}