Muharukua maternity home brings hope

The establishment of a new maternity waiting home at Opuwo will make it possible for women to stay closer to a hospital before and after giving birth.

The Kunene Region was rated lowest by the demographic and health survey of 2013 because less than half of pregnant women there gave birth in health facilities.

The reason for this was that many people in the region live in remote communities far from health facilities. The maternity home was built with the help of the health ministry, the Programme for Accelerating the Reduction of Maternal and Child Mortality (PARMaCM), the European Union and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The 35-bed maternity home cost N$3.5 million and has been named after the late regional governor Kazetjindire Angelika Muharukua, who died last year.

It was inaugurated by health minister Berhard Haufiku yesterday.

At the ceremony, the local WHO representative, Dr Charles Sogoe-Moses, said one of the key activities within the PARMaCM was the construction of maternity waiting homes. “These homes were critical to help pregnant women living in remote communities far from health facilities, move closer to the service delivery point around the time of delivery to enable easier and prompt access to care when in labour,” Sogoe-Moses said. He added that only 50% of the women who delivered received post-natal care within two days of delivery as recommended by the WHO.

“This will contribute to the reduction of deaths of mothers and newborns and have a positive impact on the lives of women, children and the entire community in the region,” he added.

Haufiku said Kunene was one of the regions where patients must travel long distances to get to healthcare facilities. He said the home would reduce complications during labour and would also reduce infant mortality rates.

“This has resulted in low performance in maternal and child health indicators. Moreover, the region has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and lowest deliveries at facilities,” Haufiku said.

The governor for the Kunene Region, Marius Sheya, said he did not want the new home to be run like other health facilities in the region.

Sheya said he had observed during visits to all seven constituencies of the region that residents were unhappy with services offered by clinics in the region.

The region was also rated last by the Namibia University of Science and Technology's (NUST) Customer Care Satisfaction Survey.

He urged regional director of health Thomas Shapumba to make sure that the maternity ward is customer oriented.

“I am sending a strong warning to those who are going to be in charge of this maternity home not to bring their household problems here. This institution must give hope to our people of Kunene and not like other health institutions in the region. Users are also expected to come with positive attitudes and not to stress those running the institution,” Sheya said.

He said the health minister could not always drive from Windhoek to ensure service delivery in the regions. Haufiku concured with Sheya and urged health officials to be extra careful because their actions cannot be undone.

“I have observed that many accidents in the ministry are due to personal attitudes. We need to be more careful because we are dealing with the lives of people. Lawyers can appeal cases for their clients once they lose, but for us nothing can be done once a life is lost,” he said.

ILENI NANDJATO