The text message program aims to provide health information to pregnant women and new mothers. (CBC)

Pregnant women and new mothers in the U.S. will be able to get health tips sent to their cellphones under a new government-funded program.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced the "text4baby" campaign on Thursday to promote the health of mothers and children.

The service offers free text messages — one per day for the first six days after registering with general information and three messages per week throughout a pregnancy and up the baby's first birthday.

Topics include:

• Nutrition.
• Immunization.
• Prenatal care.
• Emotional well-being.
• Drugs and alcohol.
• Birth defect prevention.
• Car seat safety.
• Exercise and fitness.

The program aims to prevent premature births caused by poor nutrition, excess stress, smoking and alcohol consumption.

Studies in developing countries suggest texts can help reduce such unhealthy behaviors in pregnant women.

"Especially if you start talking about low-income people, cellphones are the indispensable tool for reaching them and engaging them about their health," said Paul Meyer, president of Voxiva, a company that runs health texting programs in Africa, Latin America and India.

Wireless service providers participating in the program have agreed to waive their fees for receiving the text messages, which have been vetted by government and health experts.

The service is only available to U.S. cellphone subscribers. Women can sign up for the texts by registering online on the text4baby.org website.

Researchers at George Washington University will evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign by tracking health trends for mothers and newborns.

More than 10 per cent of births in North America, or 500,000 babies, are pre-term, according to data from the World Health Organization.

With files from The Associated Press