How Obi Answers 4,000 Pregnancy Questions a Month — and Became the App Feature Members Love Most

The Challenge

Dr. Noa Sterling built Sterling Parents on a simple but powerful premise: pregnant people deserve better information, delivered with more care. Since launching in 2019, her content and her willingness to answer questions directly have built a loyal audience. But the business model had a ceiling. When your core product is access to an expert's time, growth means either raising prices - or burning out.

The questions never stopped -  and they shouldn't. As Dr. Sterling puts it, "Pregnancy comes with LOTS of questions." And a lot of those questions feel urgent, are deeply personal, even frightening. "Is my cramping normal?" "What cold medications are safe? I'm miserable." "How can I induce labor naturally at 40 weeks? I don’t want to be induced." These aren't questions you want to wait for your doctor's appointment next week to ask. They arrive at 2 AM, during a bout of nausea, in a moment of panic. And the internet's default answers are a painfully mixed bag of quality, often leaning towards the most clickbait-friendly, scary result possible. 

Sterling Parents needed a way to make Dr. Sterling's expertise available to many more people, 24/7, without diluting the quality and care that defined the brand. That meant building something deeply grounded in her own content - and something that knew exactly when to say "talk to your doctor."

The Solution

Sterling Parents partnered with Dewey to build Obi - a virtual pregnancy guide embedded in the Sterling Parents website and mobile app, built by the team at AppIt. The name is a nod to the OB-GYN relationship, while keeping the distinction crisp: Obi is a companion, not a clinician.

What makes Obi different starts with what it won't do. It will never tell a pregnant person to "just relax." It will never surface unvetted internet speculation. When a question about specific lab results comes in, Obi acknowledges them warmly but redirects to a provider rather than guessing at interpretation without a full medical history. And when questions veer into medically risky territory, it routes members directly to their care team with clear, specific language. These guardrails aren't bolted on - they reflect Dr. Sterling's philosophy that how we speak to pregnant people matters as much as what we say.

Under the hood, Obi draws from a knowledge base of over 1,900 documents published by Sterling Parents, with zero general web content or parametric knowledge. The result: 92% of questions receive an immediate answer grounded in Dr. Sterling's expertise. There is a lot of nuance behind that number. In a domain where getting it wrong carries real consequences, a 100% answer rate would actually be a red flag. The goal isn't to answer everything - it's to answer what you can, accurately and safely, and to know when to stop.

When Obi encounters a question that it can't answer from the knowledge base, it captures it as an opportunity. These content gap insights are aggregated for the Sterling Parents team, so they can prioritize what new content to create based on real member demand.  

And because over 40% of questions are asked by more than one user, over time every content gap filled improves the experience for future members - a compounding loop that raises the answer rate in a sustainable, high-quality way.

The Impact

Before Obi, expert access meant Dr. Sterling answering questions 1-to1 as Instagram DMs - a premium product, but one that couldn't scale without growing her hours unsustainably and that sometimes required members to wait hours for responses. With Obi, Sterling Parents now handles 4,000+ questions every month. And the questions members ask get answered instantly, at 2 AM or any other time.

The growth trajectory tells the story of an AI feature earning its place. Obi started on the Sterling Parents website, handling a modest volume of questions through early 2025. When the mobile app launched with AppIt in September 2025, everything changed. Monthly sessions jumped 5x and have been growing every since. Members didn't just try Obi. They made it their primary way to get answers.

And they keep coming back. 1 in 4 members return for additional support as their pregnancy progresses and new questions arise at every stage. Pregnancy generates a new set of concerns every week, and Obi is there for each one.

And members love it. Sterling Parents holds a 4.9-star app store rating, with Obi consistently named the #1 feature by members.

"Absolutely freaking love this app and so love Obi. I ask 1 million questions a day and it never gets tired of me."

— Verified App Store Review

"I love the Ask Obi part of the app. Saying goodbye to googling pregnancy related topics and solely using this app for my ease of mind."

— Verified App Store Review

What's Next: Sterling Parents Becomes Obi

Sterling Parents recently announced that the entire company is rebranding to Obi. 

The reason says everything: "Because when we ask our members what changed their experience most, the answer is always Obi. She's become the heart of what we do - trusted information exactly when you need it."

And we know we’re just getting started together, with improvements coming out every month to give pregnant people and parents the support they deserve.