Mobile phones improving health literacy and empowering pregnant women and moms

Here's an interesting press release:

BABYCENTERÒ EXTENDS ITS REACH TO MOBILE PHONES TO EMPOWER PREGNANT WOMEN AND MOMS WORLDWIDE

Mobile Technology Leveraged to Improve Health Literacy in India and Around the Globe

(San Francisco) – August 9, 2010 – BabyCenterÒ, the #1 pregnancy and parenting destination worldwide, today announced the launch of a new program to adapt its content and experience to the most basic type of mobile phones, starting in India. In an effort to reach underserved women in emerging markets, this new BabyCenter application brings pre-natal and maternal health information to previously hard-to-reach women and encourages positive behavior changes. This population can now receive essential trusted health information and useful tips on their mobile phones through a combination of daily SMS and voice recordings in English and Hindi.

“More than 20 million moms around the globe look to BabyCenter each month for advice, support and vital information about their maternal health,” said Tina Sharkey, Chairman and Global President of BabyCenter. “But the reality is, there are large populations of women in developing nations who don’t have access to books, the Internet, or even regular visits with their healthcare professionals, but they do have mobile phones. The continued growth of mobile will be the inflection point for billions of people to become empowered to take an active role in their own health.”

Budget cell phone plans

How do you find the best cell phone plan? Maybe you're a medical student or a resident on a really tight budget. Do you go with prepay phones? Where can you find the best deals? Should you shop online for the lowest prices? Maybe you rely on your friends and family to help you with the bill. Some people simply eliminate the landline phone and carry a mobile phone. If you're looking for an online resource where you can compare different cell phone plans, you may want to try Billshrink.

Sometimes, you may see an online deal that simply looks too good to be true. It can be difficult to determine which plans are really the best cell phone plans. After all, you're not always comparing apples to apples. Some mobile carriers offer different features and benefits. Do you use a lot of minutes, or would you be the type to roll over your unused minutes? Maybe you need an unlimited talk plan. If you're like me, then maybe you're on a family plan. Plus, if the majority of your friends and family are on the same carrier, then you may have unlimited talk time with them since many carriers now offer free calling within the same carrier network.

Don't Miss this Interesting Story about "Cell Phone Elbow"

If you've never heard of "cell phone elbow" (also called cubital tunnel syndrome), then you won't want to miss this story: Do You Have Cell Phone Elbow?

Earth Day Tip for the Mobile Warrior

Today (April 22) is Earth Day and I have a tip for you if you use a mobile phone or a smartphone. Never throw your rechargeable batteries away in the regular trash. Make sure to recycle your old devices and unplug your power adapter when you're not using it to charge your phone. I know many people who leave all their power transformers plugged into the wall and they leave them plugged in. One easy way to disconnect them from your power source is to plug all your adapters into a single power strip that has a switch. This way, you can easily flip that switch when you're not using it.

Do you SMS?

Short Message Service (SMS) or "texting" has gotten so popular that I wonder how people survived before they had mobile phones. How will kids learn to spell if they're being bombarded with funny acronyms like 2L8, DYJHIW, JMO, KWIM, and L8R G8R? These make great trivia questions when you're relaxing on a cruise ship.

I think I'll stick with e-mail. I'd rather type out sentences, capitalize, and use proper grammar. I admit: I used to type all my e-mails in small letters. No CAPS. Then, I stopped that habit several years ago when I decided that I needed to grow up.