Nursery No. 1

• Photographer
  Ingun Alette Maehlum

The birth rate in Murmansk is down to almost half of what it was 30 years ago. “In the times of the Soviet Union, at least we could afford to have children”, managing director of the nursery, Antonina Mikhailovna Buravtsjenkova, says. Now the population growth has finally levelled out, thanks to – in part – better systems for maternal leave and higher child care support. The story is from Nursery number 1 in Murmansk.