Stephanie Ramirez’s doctor tells her she asks too many questions about her pregnancy. But she has a lot of questions. So she’s jazzed that a new text-messaging program will provide her with more information.

Ramirez was one of four teens—three pregnant, one with a five-month old son—who were on hand Wednesday afternoon at the city’s health department clinic on Meadow Street to kick off the new program, sponsored nationally by the Coalition for Healthy Mothers/Healthy Babies.

The girls are all students at Polly McCabe, the city’s school for pregnant teens. But the new program—called Text4Baby—is not just for teens; it’s for all pregnant women and new mothers, said Acting Health Director (and Community Services Administrator) Dr. Chisara Asomugha, a pediatrician (pictured).

She said that data from phone companies show that 91 percent of Americans have access to cellular service, and the most popular feature is text messaging. So this is a way to reach a lot of people.

“In the U.S. more than 500,000 babies—one in eight—are born prematurely and an estimated 28,000 children die before their first birthday,” she said. “This is a crisis.” That puts the U.S. near the bottom among developed countries in survival of its youngest citizens…

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