Inspiring Mama: Heather of Get Born Magazine & A Giveaway

I am so excited to introduce you to an amazing woman who will inspire you and make you laugh! Heather is creator and editor of Get Born Magazine which I stumbled upon just a couple of years ago and was immediately hooked! Imagine reading an article and thinking, "oh my gosh, that happens to other women also?" It is a place you can feel safe to read and share and by all means be honest, even about the gross stuff! "Get Born Magazine is a quarterly literary magazine by mothers, for mothers featuring smart, witty, sometimes irreverent, often sarcastic, always authentic writing for non-traditional mothers."

Please welcome Heather and enjoy a glimpse into her world:

Suzy: Thank you, Heather, for being here with us today!

Heather: Thanks for having me Suzy! I feel privileged to have two motivated mommas in the same community, creating the sort of community we want our children to eventually inhabit

Suzy: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your family?

Heather: We got pregnant with our first daughter approximately fourteen minutes after we said our vows, so parenthood was an automatic, immediate state of being that I (obviously) didn't put a lot of prior thought into. We went on to have three more daughters, all about two years apart. So it's me, Heather, Clark the dad, Katie the most responsible (even more so than her parents) eldest, Emily the creative, winsome fashionista, Megan the spry, witty, mouthy towhead, and Eliza the doted-upon, hilarious baby. We have been through a lot of trauma these last two years since my diagnosis of stage IV breast cancer, and while we still deal with the aftermath of that, I think we're inhabiting our "new normal" better than ever. In fact, I'm sure of it, since my kids mouth off to me as though I'm fully alive.

Suzy: I have really enjoyed your magazine, Get Born, over the past couple of years. Can you tell us a bit about, Get Born, and why you decided to start the magazine?

Heather: Thanks so much. I started get born because I needed a community who embraced me–flaws and all. I’m so glad I did. get born remains one of the few forums dedicated to the mom--not to any particular parenting strategy or ideology. It's a place where moms and their allies can wrestle through the messiness of both becoming a mother and trying to retain a self. Sometimes it feels downright revolutionary, all this talk about being a good enough mother and throwing off the burden of competitive mothering. The conversation is stimulating and heated, but the governing rule is compassion and empathy, and the starting point: I assume you’re doing your best, and you assume I’m doing mine; along the way, my best will falter, which is why I need a community and conversation.

Suzy: You recently posed topless for the cover of your magazine. Can you tell us a bit about this?

Heather: When I was diagnosed with terminal cancer, my biggest fear was that I would miss the stages of my girl's lives. So when the time came for me to have a double mastectomy and the doctor's asked about whether or not I wanted a new rack, I looked at the recovery time and rate of complications in trying to reconstruct boobage and opted against it. I didn't want to spend more time in a hospital and in surgery. Additionally, my sort of personal "brand" has become authenticity and keeping it very real. While I absolutely respect any woman who needs to get reconstruction in order to retain some semblance of victory over cancer, I chose not to. The scars remind me of the fall that my breasts took so I could stick around awhile longer. I still cry when I look at them for any period of time, but they're talismans of sorts, keeping me grounded in how very tenuous life is, and how much I need to work to stay present. When we began to see the very raw, powerful theme of scars and healing emerging in our spring issue, it became apparent that my willingness to uncover my scars was a perfect symbol for the statement we were making: scars exist in our lives--both internal and external--and while they remind us of pain and struggle, there's tremendous beauty in them, as well, because of what emerges from those times of pain.

Suzy: Can you give us a sneak peak into what your daily life looks like and offer some advice to other busy working Mamas?

Heather: Try to imagine a mom who adores her four children but not when they're all talking at once. I get major sensory overload when there's unending chaos and sometimes lose my shit. Throw in piano practice time, swim club (I am an official taxi), lunch-packing (supervisory only) and whiny, temper-tantrum throwing (sometimes from the kids, too). Add on top a woman who's struggling to figure out how best to straddle motherhood, a business she's passionate about, and living with cancer, and only two legs!! I feel completely stretched. My advice is to myself alone: SLOW DOWN. I have an ongoing goal to spend time meditating every day, to exercise every day, to nurture my physical body. Unfortunately, it's remained a goal and is rarely a reality. I'm a horrible example of work-life balance. I do try to tune in to my kids when they get home from school, which means putting my blackberry far away. Sometimes I screw that up, too.

Suzy: Thank you so much for sharing with us today. You are truly and amazing and inspiring woman!

To learn more about Heather and Get Born Magazine, please visit:

Website: http://www.getbornmag.com/
Blog: http://getbornmag.com/blog/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/getbornmag
Twitter: http://twitter.com/getbornmag

To be entered into a giveaway for a year subscription to Get Born, please leave a comment here! The winner will be announced on Friday May 21st!

Congratulations Mountain Top Mama for winning this giveaway!

Inspiring Mama: Heather of Get Born Magazine & A Giveaway