Today’s tech savvy guest is Laura, a wife and working mom who has been with AT&T for 13 years and is currently the Executive Director of Multicultural Marketing. Laura is here to share how expectant mothers can track their baby’s growth and development in the womb and receive milestones and tips from AT&T and Text4Baby.
Hello, my name is Laura and I’m a mom who is about to be a mom for the first time – sounds confusing. I have a stepson with a disability who lives with us, and my husband and I are expecting our first child together in May. My stepson is completely dependent on technology to communicate, so if we want to communicate with him when we are not at home, e-mail and texting is the way to go.
I use technology in every aspect of my life. Aside from using my Blackberry to stay connected to work issues, I use Navigator to get around my new city of Dallas, and I use multiple smartphone applications to manage grocery lists, get restaurant reviews or find important locations, like the shoe repair, tailor and, yes, even clean bathrooms. As two working parents juggling the demands our stepson presents us, we use technology to coordinate social schedules and yoga classes and to keep our friends and family up-to-date on happenings in our lives. More recently, I have used the internet to track how my pregnancy is progressing.
Since I learned I was an expectant mom, I became obsessed with all things related to the little one, and was anxious to know every detail of how my baby was growing and developing in my womb. I am sure this is consistent with most first-time Moms. I started scouring Web sites and filling out all sorts of profiles about myself so I could join online communities to keep up with my baby’s growth (and mine). I would search Web sites to understand which symptoms I should be expecting and the reasons for those symptoms. At last, I learned about AT&T and Text4Baby, a text service that I registered for that sends me text messages with prenatal updates. It took me only seconds to enroll in the service, and my quest to learn everything possible about our new addition was abated.
Now instead of searching for information online, I get a brief text with helpful and, more importantly, timely prenatal updates. I am reminded of milestones – like when I reached that third trimester. I get helpful reminders about diet and what to avoid. These reminders are especially helpful as our Mommy brains are working on overdrive by now, and it is easy to forget that right about now is a good time to kick up our intake of healthy fats to help with brain development.
The free service, made possible through the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Baby Coalition provides messages at just the right time. This is made possible because while enrolling, you provide your due date so messages sent are relevant to your stage of pregnancy. This is especially important for new Moms, because we don’t know what we don’t know, so we need lots of questions answered. Last week, I started to feel the dreaded backache I had read about – but hadn’t yet understood how to minimize the discomfort. As if on cue, I get a message from Text4Baby with a helpful tip on how to alleviate back pain discomfort and some limitations I should keep in mind. And just today, while waiting to see my doctor for my gestational diabetes test, I get a text that reminds me of the test and how important it is to the health and wellbeing of my baby that I go through a glucose screening.
Admittedly, while I still scour for information on the internet about my baby’s growth, I am now more focused on specific topics that I know are important at this stage in my baby’s development. This frees me up to seek information on what kind of car seat will fit my car or which breast pump is going to be right for me.
Huge thanks to Laura for sharing how Text4Baby has helped her can track her baby’s growth and development!
For tips on how to stay calm, cool, and connected through technology in this hectic world, visit AT&T’s Calm, Cool, & Connected site where moms and dads blog about their experiences using technology to stay sane.
No compensation was received for sharing this guest post.
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Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
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