Parenting stress has grown so widespread in the United States that public health leaders have begun calling it a crisis.

For many families, the pressure rarely lets up. Children get sick. Developmental milestones bring new challenges every few months. And everyday situations like getting kids ready for school, navigating tantrums, or worrying about a sudden fever, can quickly turn into overwhelming moments.

For Poppins, these challenges weren’t just statistics; they were deeply personal.

Before founding the company, Alex Stried was serving as Chief Product Officer at a Series C startup while raising two young children of her own. Like many parents, she experienced firsthand how quickly parenting responsibilities collided with professional expectations.

“Parents today go to work, and they’re expected to be an A-plus employee,” she says. “Then they come home, and they’re expected to be an A-plus parent. But they’re completely burnt out.”

The experience made one thing clear to her: parents didn’t just need more information, they needed faster access to trusted guidance. And the scale of the problem only reinforced that belief. Nearly 48% of parents report feeling overwhelmed or extremely stressed most days of the week, a number that reflects the growing strain families are facing.

“And so that’s a lot, that’s almost half of all parents across the United States,” Alex says. “So this is definitely something that has to get solved for.”

Beyond her first-hand parenting experience, to Alex, the workforce impact was becoming impossible to ignore.

“In the first half of 2025, over half a million women left work because of parenting-related stress,” she explains. “And that’s another reason why we wanted to introduce Poppins. We believe we can help with that stress by giving parents quick access to pediatric guidance, so maybe it’s less stressful if you realize that actually, this is typical behavior and you can just let it go.”

And just like that, this idea of making expert parenting and pediatric guidance accessible whenever parents need it became the foundation for Poppins.

The Birth of a New Kind of Parenting Platform

Poppins was built to give parents something they rarely get in stressful moments: quick access to trusted guidance. The platform connects families with pediatric clinicians and licensed parent coaches who can answer questions, provide medical advice, and help parents navigate everyday challenges, often through something as simple as a text message.

“We are a parenting platform that offers pediatric medical care, sleep consulting and parent coaching via text,” Alex explains.

Parents can ask a medical question to a pediatric nurse practitioner or reach out to a licensed parent coach for guidance on challenges at home. If they need more support, they can also schedule one-on-one time with a coach.

The types of concerns parents bring to the platform reflect the realities of raising children. Some reach out about feeding, nutrition, sleep struggles, or separation anxiety. Others ask about common medical issues like rashes, fever, or constipation.

Behind the platform is a network of clinicians from leading pediatric institutions across the U.S., including Boston Children’s, Seattle Children’s, Duke, and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Their expertise allows the team to help parents make informed decisions quickly, often within minutes.

Measuring Real Impact for Families

Suffice it to say, speed is a critical part of the experience with Poppins. While the company promises responses within fifteen minutes, most parents hear back much sooner.

That responsiveness allows the team to address the majority of concerns directly within the platform. In fact, Poppins is able to resolve about 90% of the cases that come in, either by diagnosing and treating the issue, prescribing medication when appropriate, or guiding parents on the best next step.

Sometimes that guidance simply reassures parents. Other times, it helps them avoid unnecessary emergency room visits by pointing them to the right level of care.

That combination of expert guidance and quick access has had a measurable impact on families using the service.

Parents report 67% less stress within just two months of using Poppins, and the platform maintains an NPS score of 94, reflecting how valuable the support has become for the families who rely on it.

Supporting Parents Through Conversations

Parents come to Poppins with questions that often feel urgent in the moment: a sudden fever, a rash that appeared overnight, or uncertainty about whether a symptom requires medical attention. The ability to ask a question and receive guidance quickly is what makes the experience work.

That’s where Emitrr became a part of the communication layer, helping Poppins respond faster and communicate better with their clients.

“We use Emitrr in many ways,” says Alex Stried.

The first is as a customer service tool. Because parents often reach out outside typical business hours, the team has also set up automated responses for common questions so no one feels left waiting.

“We can set up responses if we’re out of office or if it’s the middle of the night,” Alex explains. “That way people can still get an answer, and we’re able to chat with them and go back and forth when the team is available.”

Since Poppins provides medical guidance to the family, HIPAA compliance was non-negotiable for them. 

“We are a medical platform, so we wanted to be HIPAA-compliant,” says Alex Stried. With Emitrr, the team can have secure texting conversations between clinicians and parents, allowing them to discuss medical concerns while maintaining the compliance standards required in healthcare.

Emitrr’s AI also comes in handy to capture key details about the child, such as date of birth, to verify that they’re speaking with a parent or guardian for that extra layer of verification and confidence. 

On top of this, most interactions happen over messaging, but some moments call for something more immediate. In those situations, the Poppins team quickly shifts from messaging to a call with Emitrr, walking parents through what to do next, and helping them decide whether the situation can be handled at home or needs in-person care.

By bringing secure messaging, calling, and automation together in one place, Emitrr helps the Poppins team focus on what they care about most, responding quickly and giving parents the clarity they need in stressful moments

At the Core

In the end, all of these pieces- quick conversations, secure communication, and the ability to reach the right expert when it matters- feed into a much bigger goal.

For Poppins, the mission has always been to make parenting feel a little less overwhelming. By giving families fast access to trusted pediatric guidance and practical coaching, the platform helps parents navigate everyday challenges with more confidence and far less uncertainty.

Tools like Emitrr quietly support that mission in the background, making it easier for the Poppins team to stay connected with parents when they need help the most.

And if that support can arrive in the moment a parent needs it most, whether it’s a late-night question, a sudden illness, or simply reassurance that everything is okay, then Poppins is doing exactly what it set out to do: making life a little easier for families trying to balance it all.