UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 18, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) has been running its maternity and birthrate-enhancing initiatives since 2004, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports.

The program allows expectant mothers to stop working yet still receive their average monthly pay from Week 13 of their pregnancy and till their maternity leave, as long as they attend special courses at Maternity Center, where pregnant women can get the physically and psychologically prepared for the birth and the childrearing.

The women can also come to the company water park free of charge and receive medical treatment (as prescribed by their doctors) at the company’s Yuzhny Sanatorim. The goal is to make the women’s gestation period as comfortable as possible and to make sure new parents receive some financial support from their employer post-birth.

260 female employees received a total of over RUR 23m in maternity support in the first half of the year; nearly 1,500 women on maternity leaves received RUR 9m in childcare support. All in all, MMK directed RUR 14.7m for the initiatives in the first half of the year.