Couples in Russia are being encouraged to conceive a baby on ‘Conception Day’ – and then reap the rewards for their effort.
The catch? All babies have to be born on the National Day of June 12 to qualify for the baby bonus prizes.
People in the city of Ulyanovsk, Russia are being urged to get busy between the sheets and become pregnant in a bid to help boost plummeting population figures.
If the reward of a newborn baby isn’t enough, they are adding in baby bonus prizes in a Generation Game style competition, including a chance to ‘win’ a television, fridge, cash and even a brand new car.
It has been predicted that the population number of Russians will fall as low as 26 million by 2050. To tackle this, the Ulyanovsk’s government has created this eccentric initiative to inspire people to procreate!
It seems that the baby making initiative is working. In a busy maternity ward in Ulyanovsk, midwife Olga Galinka told Sky News. “Mothers sometimes come and ask for babies to be delivered on June 12.”
Gushing about the timely arrival of his twin baby boys this year and no doubt happy to have made the June 12 deadline for the prizes, new dad Anatoly Magarin was overjoyed about his momentous entrance into fatherhood. “ I am feeling pride about my boys, with tears in my eyes that they were born on the Day of Russia and that they won such a prize,” he revealed.