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[INTIMATE HYGIENE AND POSTPARTUM IN AN OCCUPIED CITY] Maty y nemovliatko: Porady dlia naimolodshykh materiv [i.e. Mother and Baby: Tips for the Youngest of Mothers]

Hankivskyi, V[olodymyr]

Item #2301

Second revised edition. Krakow: Drukarnia “Pospishna” for Ukrainske vydavnytstvo, 1943. 53 pp, [3], ill. 20 x 14 cm. Illustrated publisher’s wrappers. In Ukrainian. Near fine. Skillful restoration to cover and some leaves. Lightly browned due to paper stock. Publisher’s cover depicting a mother holding a newborn; both shielded by growing vines. The illustration is signed “П.О.” in the lower left corner of the frame.

The edition is printed by the only publisher of Ukrainian-language books under Nazi administration: Ukrainske vydavnytstvo. It was a controlled entity that allowed publishing of healthcare books.

The author of the book, Volodymyr Hankivskyi (?-1941) was a prominent physician from Kolomiya, Western Ukraine. He held private practice that gave him the opportunity to buy a personal car, FIAT - among the first three Ukrainians in the 1930s who could allow themselves such luxury. Being a man of means, Hankivskyi was energetically involved in providing medical aid and advice for the poor and people who otherwise were unable to afford the consultations and treatments. It is known that ca. 1932 Hankivskyi with fellow doctors Volodymyr Bilozor and Oleksandr Kozakevich organized and tutored at a free clinic under the aegis of the Ukrainian Hygienic Medical Society. According to Ilnytska (2016), the first edition of this newborn care guide appeared in 1927 as a part of Zhinocha dolia [Woman’s Fate] (1925-1939), a popular feminist local monthly led by active suffrage Olena Kysilevska. Hankivskyi had a personal connection with the suffrage movement of the region, becoming a husband of Ganna Kysilevska, Olena’s daughter. He wrote some other brochures and pamphlets, one on tuberculosis (1927).

In 1920’s and 1930’s books, brochures and posters on hygiene in Ukraine have followed different paths. The nationalized Soviet healthcare followed statewide guidelines. The situation was different for the Western Ukraine, where the national healthcare was not able to rely on generous state support. Homebirths were common and the educational material was scarce. Thus, personal effort and initiatives like one demonstrated by Hankivskyi, really made the difference for regional neonatal medicine. Turn of the century hygienic revolution helped to
battle infections, lower the rate of stillbirths and promote progressive, science-backed self-care, but it was proven to be a struggle to introduce the modern scientific methods to traditionalist villagers. An emphasis on proven factors of healthy life of mother and a newborn is taken, as opposed to marginal local “witches”, “mages”. The contents focus on informal and precise advice for a pregnant woman and a young mother. Hygienic procedures, diet, ways to guard off the infections are described. A curious way to promote hygiene are slogans introduced at the bottom of some pages, with some examples we couldn’t resist to quote:
V chystii khati – chystenka hazdynia
[ Tidy house - tidy housewife! ]
Ne rody bez ispytovanoi akusherky!
[ No birth without a certified midwife! ]
Dytynku hodui svoimy hrudmy
[ Feed the baby with your own breasts ]

L. Ilnytska. Ukrainska knyha v Halychyni, na Bukovyni, Zakarpatti, Volyni ta v emihratsii, 1914–1939. Bibliohrafichnyi pokazhchyk. Vol. III: 1924-1927, pt. 2: 1926-1927 (Lviv, 2016). Item
no. 6354 (the first edition).
Savchuk, Mykola. Kolomyia y Kolomyishchyna. Vol II. Philadelphia, 2008.

Not the National Bibliography of Ukraine.
Scarce. This edition is not in the WorldCat, but a later 1947 edition appears in 5 libraries, 4 of them in North America.
Not in KVK.

Price: $750.00