Mindy Kaling Recalls How Her Baby Nurse Stepped In As Her "Mom" After Giving Birth

In a newly released series of essays called Nothing Like I Imagined (Except For Sometimes), Mindy Kaling recalled how her baby nurse helped her find her footing as a single mom in the early days of parenting. A task that was made exponentially more difficult by the fact that her late mother was not there to lend a hand, bits of advice, or emotional support.

The Mindy Project star welcomed her daughter, Katherine Swati Kaling, in December 2017. Kaling named her daughter, who she calls "Kit" for short, after her mother, who died after a battle with pancreatic cancer in 2012. Since the birth of her daughter almost three years ago, Kaling has been open about the highs and lows of being a single mom, but perhaps never so candidly as in her first essay series since becoming a mother for the first time.

In Nothing Like I Imagined (Except For Sometimes), which was released on Amazon Original Stories on Wednesday, Kaling opened up about the early days of motherhood back in 2017. The actress wrote that she initially felt she could handle everything on her own before coming to the realization that her mother would not be there to help guide her. "If Mom could do it all without a whisper of complaint, then why couldn't I?" she wrote.

According to Kaling, a friend recommended that she hire a baby nurse and a new relationship was born.

As the Late Night writer explained in her collection of essays, her baby nurse Rose changed everything for her. "I didn't have my mom. But I did have Rose," Kaling wrote. "Rose loved giving advice, and I loved listening to it. All these fears were the worst I've ever had in my life, and Rose helped me keep them at bay. She was my mom when I needed a mom, and that wasn't even her job."

Seeking out a support system is essential for new moms, as Kaling quickly learned. Especially when a new mom is on her own. Especially when she has lost her own mom. In Nothing Like I Imagined (Except for Sometimes), Kaling shared that it "finally dawned" on her that, after her daughter was born, that "I have a child who will never know her grandmother, the person who was the closest to me in the world. And I was about to start this journey with my daughter by myself.”

Yes, Kaling has been raising her daughter as a single mother, but she's also had support. From her baby nurse Rose in the beginning, as well as the continued support of family like her father, who, as Kaling shared on Instagram in June, visits his granddaughter with "puzzles and Indian food" every day.