diff --git a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/backend/app/app/db/init_db.py b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/backend/app/app/db/init_db.py
index 4f1d6f5aa3..6374273132 100644
--- a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/backend/app/app/db/init_db.py
+++ b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/backend/app/app/db/init_db.py
@@ -2,6 +2,11 @@
 from app.core import config
 from app.models.user import UserCreate
 
+# make sure all SQL Alchemy models are imported before initializing DB
+# otherwise, SQL Alchemy might fail to initialize properly relationships
+# for more details: https://github.com/tiangolo/full-stack-fastapi-postgresql/issues/28
+from app.db import base
+
 
 def init_db(db_session):
     # Tables should be created with Alembic migrations