Heleen Kuipers was born to grain merchant and miller Hendrik Rietberg and Clara Christina Theodora Dulfer. She was the fourth child in a Reformed family with two sons and three daughters. After primary school, she attended a three-year secondary school, where she met her future husband, Piet Kuipers (Pieter Heijo Kuipers (1892-1978), grain merchant). After secondary school, Kuipers worked in her father's office and her husband bought into the company. After their marriage on 21 April 1921, they had two sons and three daughters. Kuipers was primarily responsible for raising the children, but she and her husband were also active in many social organisations. In 1932, she co-founded the Reformed Women's Association in the Netherlands and, from its inception in 1937, was a member of the executive committee of the Union of Reformed Women's Associations in the Netherlands. This gave her many contacts throughout the country, which would later prove to be very useful during the occupation.
