Nordic countries are desperate for babies amid fears falling birth rates could see an end to the region's generous welfare state model.
The Nordic regions have long been a bastion of strong fertility rates on an old continent that is rapidly getting older.
But they are now experiencing a decline that threatens their cherished welfare model, which is funded by taxpayers.
Norway's Prime Minister, Erna Solberg issued a desperate plea to citizens and said 'Norway needs more children', as she raised concerns over the amount of children being born.
'Norway needs more children! I don't think I need to tell anyone how this is done.
'In the coming decades, we will encounter problems with this model,' Prime Minister Erna Solberg warned Norwegians in her New Year's speech.
'There will be fewer young people to bear the increasingly heavy burden of the welfare state.'
In Norway, Finland and Iceland, birth rates dropped to historic lows in 2017, with 1.49 to 1.71 children born per woman. Just a few years earlier, their birth rates hovered close to the 2.1 level required for their populations to remain stable.
In Denmark, Copenhagen has meanwhile turned its attention to men, who are in less of a hurry to become parents than women, with a campaign aimed at raising awareness about how sperm quality declines with age.
The Nordic region already boasts a wealth of family-friendly initiatives, such as flexible working hours, a vast network of affordable daycares and generous parental leave systems.
But when all that is still not enough to encourage people to have more children, immigration can be a lifeline - or a threat, depending on the point of view.
Sweden may have a falling birth rate, but it still comes in second in the EU behind France with 1.85 children born per woman in 2016.
That is largely due to Sweden's decades-long history of immigration: immigrant women tend to have more children than the average Swede.
With 2.6 children per woman in recent years, the town of Aneby in southern Sweden has one of the highest rates in the country, a phenomenon attributed to the fact that it opened its doors to immigrants two decades ago.
'Aneby welcomed around 225 Eritreans in the early 1990s and just after that (it took in) refugees from the Balkans. 1994 was a demographic record for the town,' local official Ola Gustafsson told AFP.
But population growth among minorities has also fuelled fears.
A former justice minister in Norway, Per-Willy Amundsen of the populist far-right, made headlines when he called for family allowances to be reduced after a third child.
His stated goal was to stop Somalis who, he said, had a higher 'birth production' rate than 'ethnic Norwegians'.
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