Laura, of Respira Birth & Yoga, is grounded in her own experiences with birth, both as a birthing mama and as a doula, accompanying families during their births. Laura’s own birth journeys and the births that she has attended have taught her that birth can be an empowering, positive, life affirming experience. She is committed to connecting with families, helping them get ready for birth and being there with them throughout their pregnancy, birth and postpartum days. She believes that her own trust in the birth process and her complementary skills as a yoga teacher and a trained doula will offer you balanced, effective and compassionate support your during birth. Laura is excited to help families journey through their pregnancies, births and welcoming new babies into their arms.

Laura has worked with children and families as an educator for 30+ years. Eleven of these years were spent teaching in early childhood classrooms. She has an M.Ed. in Elementary Education from Antioch University New England with a focus on creative, project based learning and place based education. Laura has taught and led programming for young people from ages 2-12 since 1994. Her favorite educational jobs have been teaching children’s yoga in elementary schools which she taught for several years in NYC at the Parkside School, a school for children with language based learning disabilities. Since January of 2026, Laura has been teaching children’s yoga, creative movement games and folk dance as a movement specialist at RH Conwell Elementary in Worthiington, MA.

In April of 2026, Laura completed her second (32 hour) birth doula training with Michelle L’Esperance of Warm Welcome Birth. She also recently completed an additional one day workshop with Michelle, a refresher course for doulas. Laura’s first birth doula training was completed with Debra Pascali-Bonaro in 2003. Laura attended ten births as a doula from 2003-2012.

At this moment, spring of 2026, Laura is now starting her doula practice up again in Western Mass. She is working on getting covered with MassHealth to offer her services free of charge for MassHealth clients.

Laura is a RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher). She completed training with the Therapeutic Approach Yoga Studio of Nova Scotia (200 hours of study) as well as a training with YogaKids and another with Yoga for the Special Child. Laura’s yoga teaching integrates dance, barre blend and creative movement with yoga. Laura also integrates her love of movement and her experiences with mindfulness into her doula practice and her Birth to Balance classes (a yoga and mindfulness series for pregnancy and birth).

Laura is fluent in English and Spanish and is excited to serve bilingual families. She also speaks French and is happy to provide bilingual doula support to French speaking families as well.

Laura has raised three wonderful young men, now ages 23, 20 and 17. She had three beautiful homebirths that inspired her to want to help others along their birth journeys. During her births, she was fortunate to be supported by incredible midwives, doulas, and her life partner, Julien. She looks forward to supporting and connecting with you and your family during your pregnancy. Laura offers support for your birth in any setting: in a birth center, a hospital, your home, etc. She also has experience supporting water births.

Please reach out to Laura if you are curious and think she might be the right doula, yoga teacher or yoga-doula for you! Send any questions, wonderings, hopes or concerns and Laura will reach out to you to connect.