My entrance into motherhood was not what I expected.

My son was born via unplanned emergency C-section, thousands of miles from my family in Minnesota, and I found myself healing from major surgery while trying to figure out how to keep a tiny human alive. Motherhood was harder than I ever imagined, and I felt more alone than I ever had.

What changed everything was finding my mom friends. Slowly, through that community, I started to feel like myself again. Also, my mom. After both of my children were born she flew back and forth, cooking for me, taking care of the baby so I could have a moment to breathe, a shower without rushing, a meal I did not have to think about. The kind of care that sounds small but means everything when you are running on empty.

By the time my daughter arrived, we were more prepared. A scheduled C-section, support already in place, a village ready and waiting. The difference was night and day. And I kept thinking, every mother deserves to feel that prepared, and that cared for. Not just the ones who are lucky enough to afford it.

My education has always centered on children, and becoming a mother showed me something it never could. That the most powerful thing you can do for a child is take care of their mother. That realization is what started all of this.

As for the name, my mom has always collected these beautiful glass hen pieces. They filled her home when I was growing up, and when I thought about what I was building, I kept coming back to her. And to her mother, my grandma Evelyn, who my daughter is named after.

My mom had me young. Both she and my dad worked, and that is where my grandma came in. She was my mom's village, the one who was always there. We cooked together, gardened together, watched every single Shirley Temple film ever made. She was warm, with a side of spice. She always said it was the Scots-Irish in her. She showed up for my mom the way my mom showed up for me.

Mother Hen exists because of women like them. Everyone should be so lucky to have people who show up for them that way, who nourish you, hold you, and make you feel like you are going to be okay.

But not every mother has that. And that is exactly who we are here for.

With love, Kali McCabe Mandile Founder, Mother Hen