3:00 - 3:20 · 3rd Floor Conference Room
Preparing Your Pelvic Floor for Birth and Beyond
Pregnancy, labor, and birth are transformative events for you but also for your pelvic floor! Pregnancy and birth affect your pelvic floor, but your pelvic floor also affects your birth. Knowing how to prepare will help you feel more confident heading into labor. You’ll learn what your pelvic floor is, its role in your labor, and 3 tips for how to prepare your pelvic floor for birth. Whether you're newly pregnant or counting down the weeks, you'll leave with practical tips you can use immediately.
Amanda Shipley, PT, DPT, MTC, is the founder of Renew Pelvic Health, a pelvic floor physical therapist with more than 24 years of experience and a homebirth mom of two. Amanda teaches her patients the same techniques that helped her go from a 30-hour labor with her first child to a 5-hour (and much smoother!) labor with her second. Amanda is the creator and host of the Kumbay’all podcast and has been featured on Livestrong, HuffPost, The Aligned Birth podcast, and more.
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3:35 - 3:55 · 3rd Floor Conference Room
Prenatal Music Class: Whether you're newly pregnant or approaching your due date, this is your invitation to slow down. Discover how music nurtures your baby's development before they arrive and connect with other expectant parents — building the bond, community, and bedtime ritual that will carry you into the newborn days.
Together, we'll develop your musical toolbox for calming both yourself and your baby in those early days. This becomes a familiar place to return to — where you'll recognize the people, and your baby will recognize the melodies.
Kenya Engram, MMT, LPMT, MT-BC, is a licensed and board-certified music therapist with a bachelor's and master's degree in Music Therapy. She is trained in Sound Birthing Music Therapy Assisted Childbirth and Sound Birthing Postpartum Music Therapy. She loves helping new parents bond with their newborns — through her private practice, Nurturing Notes Music Therapy, and through Music Together of Decatur's Prenatal and Baby Music Classes.
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3:35 - 3:55 · 3rd Floor Dance Studio
 Baby Music Class (Newborns – 7 Months): It's never too early to start! Babies are natural-born music-makers, learning music the same way they learn language — through immersion, play, and listening to the grown-ups they love.
Designed for first-time parents and babies not yet crawling, this is your chance to get a taste of what class feels like — musical activities that support your baby's development, a strong bond built through singing, dancing, and play, and connection with other parents navigating the joys and challenges of a newborn.
Wendy Snell holds a Master's in Early Childhood Education and began her career as a Kindergarten teacher. For more than two decades, she has taught music, movement, and dance to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, receiving intensive training in 2012 through the internationally recognized early childhood music and movement program, Music Together®. As Director of Music Together of Decatur and Founder of Decatur Baby Village, Wendy is passionate about helping new parents connect with their babies, each other, and the resources that can help them thrive postpartum.
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4:10 - 4:30 · 3rd Floor Conference Room
Parental Mental Health: Becoming a parent can bring joy, love, overwhelm, anxiety, identity shifts, and relationship changes—often all at once. This compassionate, practical talk explores the emotional realities of pregnancy and postpartum, common perinatal mental health concerns, and the ways both birthing and non-birthing parents can be affected. Attendees will learn what is common, what may signal a need for additional support, and how to care for themselves and their relationships during this transformative season.
Jaime Filler, LMFT, PMH-C, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Perinatal Mental Health-Certified, and Approved Clinical Supervisor, is Clinical Director of Aspen Grove Counseling and uses an integrative, evidence-based approach — including CBT, mindfulness, family systems theory, the Gottman Method, and EMDR — tailored to each client. She specializes in maternal mental health, anxiety, depression, and life transitions, with a particular passion for supporting new parents. Jaime is a certified Gottman Bringing Baby Home Educator and a member of Postpartum Support International.
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