In 2011 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched a public/private partnership called the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action, or MAMA. It includes the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Johnson & Johnson company, the United Nations Foundation and the mHealth Alliance. Kirsten Gagnaire is the global director of MAMA.

"There's about 800 women a day globally, and about three million babies every year, that die from pregnancy and childbirth-related causes."

She says the MAMA program sends messages to mobile phones to educate women about their health.

"We have a set of messages that cover pregnancy and the first year of a baby's life."

She says health messages may also be sent to a pregnant woman's husband and mother-in-law, for example. That way they too can understand what needs to be done.

Patricia Mechael of the mHealth Alliance says messages can be text or voicemail.

"For example, you can have a pregnant woman in Bangladesh registered into a system that provides messages that are timed to her pregnancy that can help her know what to do, when to do certain things. And then when to go in for specific treatment issues, or prevention care like immunizations and that sort of thing."

Even simple text messages can be important sources of information to people without Internet access. And Kirsten Gagnaire of the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Health says even online users may not understand all the information available.