GALLERIA - While most women in their 30s are ecstatic to hear the words, "You're pregnant," from their doctors, for Kate Badey and Allison Van Beneden, those words can come with a sense of worry, fear and even pain.

"It makes such a difference when you realize that you're going to struggle, because you just always assume that it's going to be easy," said Badey, 33. "And I still see people all the time and think, 'How did they get pregnant? How does that happen?' It's a completely foreign concept."

Badey and Van Beneden, 30, share similar stories and, like 7.3 million couples nationwide, struggle with the devastating effects of infertility.

While infertility has taken a difficult and, at times, overwhelming toll on their lives, Badey and Van Beneden are using their knowledge and experience to help teach and support other women like them.

With the help of RESOLVE: the National Infertility Association, Badey, of Cumming, and Van Beneden, of Smyrna, along with a team of volunteers are organizing the 2010 Atlanta Family Building Conference to be conducted Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Cobb Galleria. The conference caps off National Infertility Awareness Week, which is April 24 through May 1.

The first of its kind in Atlanta, the conference will bring together doctors, nurses and other infertility experts to highlight all forms of treatment, including intrauterine insemination, in vitro fertilization, third-party reproduction, such as donor egg and donor sperm, as well as surrogacy and adoption. The cost to register online is $45 and $50 at the event.

"We're going to have information on how to make your marriage better and strengthen your relationship going through infertility," Badey said. "It's really hard because you have to talk about things you never thought you would discuss in your marriage. It's a major life crisis and for most married couples, it's the first major life crisis that they have. Most people start having babies at a young age and if you can't have a baby and you have to bring the doctor into the mix, suddenly there's a whole lot of people in the bedroom, even though they're not there physically."

While Badey and Van Beneden have fairly similar infertility treatment stories, there is one glaring difference: Van Beneden now has a two-month-old baby boy, Brayden.

After one miscarriage from a natural pregnancy, Van Beneden and her husband, Paul, began with intrauterine insemination treatments and eventually moved on to their first in vitro fertilization treatment in July 2008, which failed. She got pregnant one more time on her own, but had an ectopic pregnancy, which eventually caused her to miscarry. Van Beneden then had surgery for her endometriosis, and started another in vitro cycle in June 2009. She found out she was pregnant with triplets in late June 2009, but in an extremely rare situation, the embryos split and one implanted in her uterus while the other two settled in one of the tubes to her uterus, which is known as a cornual pregnancy.

Since Van Beneden's case was so rare and the cornual pregnancy life threatening, she was sent to New York to undergo treatment for a reduction at NYU in August 2009. The reduction did not go as planned and Van Beneden had emergency surgery to help save her healthy embryo in the uterus and stop her from bleeding internally.

On Feb. 26, she delivered a healthy baby boy that she and all of her doctors call, a miracle baby.

Badey has also been pregnant three times - once naturally, once through intrauterine insemination and once through IVF - and has miscarried three times.

"It's to the point now where I don't really expect anything positive to come out of it," Badey said candidly.

But she does say she's holding out hope for a baby and that she and her husband, Keith, are just starting to talk about the idea of adoption.

Badey got involved with RESOLVE a few years ago when she too was diagnosed with endometriosis, which can cause infertility in some women. She and Van Beneden met through a mind and body health group in Cobb County for infertility about two years ago. Through Badey's encouragement, Van Beneden started volunteering with RESOLVE as well. The two women credit their friendship and involvement in infertility groups with helping them get through their difficult struggle.

"With me, I had my failed in vitro, and it's not until you go through a little bit and then you're like, 'OK, I really have no one to talk to,'" Van Beneden said. "And then you kind of find out about these groups and they become your good friends and you have so much in common and it's just to support each other. Because your friends and family that you have don't really understand."

Badey added, "They all mean really well."

"But no one really gets it," Van Beneden said.

Badey and Van Beneden both encourage women to come to the conference not just for the information sessions, but also for a chance to meet other women going through the same thing and to find a support group.

Badey and her husband were interviewed by Barbara Walters on the View in February and she lamented about how not everyone is supportive of her in her struggle to get pregnant.

"I think that was the thing at least for me and my husband when we went on the View, I expected everybody to say, 'oh wow, that was so great.' And a lot of people did," Badey said. "But a lot of people said really negative things too, like, 'why don't you adopt?' and 'how dare you spend money on treatment, there are all of these children that need to have homes, and how could you possibly think that treatment is worth it?' And that was a really hard thing to deal with because you don't realize that people don't really like infertility patients that much."

Another reason for women and their husbands to come, Badey and Van Beneden said, is to get mental health and financial advice from experts who can help you plan your infertility treatment path, and start a family.

The conference will address mental health wellness along with complementary medication, such as acupuncture and hypnotherapy. Sessions on how to budget for infertility will also be available, since treatment such as in vitro fertilization can cost up to $20,000 per session, and adoption can range from $35,000 to $45,000.

Both women estimate they have spent between $45,000 and $70,000 for IVF treatment and medication.

"Most of the time when you want to talk to a professional you have to pay that professional for their time. So you really will have a good opportunity to get in and ask some questions and maybe find some solutions that you hadn't considered previously," Badey said of the conference.

For more information on the Family Building Conference in Atlanta, visit the Web site at www.resolve.org/ATLconference.