OMBAMBIHAKA – A lack of health facilities in Ombambihaka in Ruacana compels many Ovahimba women to give birth at home.
Daniel Arona the spokesman for the headman of Ombambihaka, Mbasilika Kavari, says the village urgently needs a health facility.
He expressed concern about the high number of women at the village who give birth at home without the benefits of a trained midwife.
He said only one out of every 100 women in the village has ever delivered a child in hospital because of the long distance to get them to the facility.
On Wednesday a 23-year-old mother gave birth at her home. Tjindunda Uetjirambere said she delivered all her four children at home because the hospital is located 110 kilometres away.
“With my first baby I attended antenatal care for two days and the third day of the follow-up I was late. The nurse then refused to attend to me because I was late and since then I’ve never gone back,” said Uetjirambere who gave birth to a healthy boy.
After birth the baby was covered with otjize paste, a cosmetic mixture of butterfat and ochre pigment to cleanse the skin and to protect it from the extremely hot and dry climate of that area as well as against mosquito and other insect bites.
The cosmetic mixture, often perfumed with the aromatic resin of the omuzumba shrub, gives their skin and hair plaits a distinctive orange or red tinge characteristic, as well as texture and style.
Otjize is considered foremost a highly desirable aesthetic beauty cosmetic, symbolizing the earth’s rich red colour and of blood the essence of life consistent with the OvaHimba ideal of beauty.
“So far I don’t have any complaints, the pain is minimal and I hope that it will disappear very soon,” she told New Era.
“But my baby is still small so I have to wait until he turns a month in order for me to walk about 35 kilometres to the nearest (day) clinic,” she said.
She also urged the government to rehabilitate an existing borehole for them to have access to water.
Her siblings concurred with Uetjirambere’s suggestion saying they walk up to 15-20 kilometres to fetch water from a nearby spring.
They said they do not have any problem with the place, but all they need is water and access to a nearby health centre in order to give birth in a modern facility.
The headman’s spokesman said they are in a remote area full of snakes.
He further noted it is even harder to get to the hospital at night should a person for instance be bitten by a snake or faced with a life-threatening situation.
The nearest clinic is 35 kilometres from the village and closes after normal working hours, hence people have to travel more than 100 kilometres to the hospital in Outapi.