LaRue Emmell is a retired nurse, an active childbirth educator, and a certified childbirth and postpartum doula. Ms. Emmell is employed by Child, Home and Community, a non-profit organization that provides free childbirth classes to the teen and low-income population in Norristown. She is secretary of the Montgomery County Teen Parent Task Force and a member of the Montgomery County Commission on Women and Families. Additionally, Ms. Emmell is a board member on the National Children’s Study Montgomery County Community Advisory Board, Community Health and Dental Care, Inc. in Pottstown, and the Montgomery County Infant Health Advisory Board. Her volunteer work includes visiting the homebound and new mothers through her local church. She is also the Referral Coordinator for DONA International, the premier doula organization in the world.
Since 1976, Ms. Emmell has been a proud participant in the Nurses’ Health Study, a study that has contributed data to help shape national health guidelines for women for the past 33 years. Some of the major contributions of this study include: the roll of vitamin D in colorectal cancer prevention, the importance of exercise in the prevention of memory loss, hormone replacement therapy and the increased risk of breast cancer, stroke, and pulmonary embolism.
“I recognize the importance of the National Children’s Study. Having had experience in the Maternal-Child Health area for many years, I have witnessed the same gestational health problems, gestational diabetes, pregnancy induced hypertension, preterm labor, and stillbirths, in all socio-economic groups. Children are developing various learning disabilities, asthma, and diabetes at alarming rates. This Study will help determine how these health problems can be prevented. What are we doing wrong? What are we doing right? It is imperative that young mothers in Montgomery County say “yes” when asked to enroll their child in this important national study to help improve the lives of their children’s children.”