BABIES must be "buy one get one free" at the moment because they're everywhere particularly in the arms of teenage mums.

I reckon the number of girls who look like they should be in school, but are pushing prams is on the increase in South Bucks and it's starting to worry me.

The front page of a well-known tabloid showed three sisters all mums at 12, 14, and 16 from Derby.

It could so easily have been High Wycombe.

I'll start by saying I don't have a solution to the problem. I am not that clever.

But something needs to be done by those who do have the expertise be-cause it seems to be getting beyond control.

Most teenagers have enough trouble looking after a mobile phone let alone a baby.

Research has found the majority of teenagers are not eating an adequate diet, so I'm not surprised to see fast food restaurants full of pram-wielding mums.

In the past, lifelike dolls have been given to teenagers as a way of introducing them to the joys, or otherwise, of motherhood with the hope it will put them off sex until they are more responsible, or at least persuade them to take the necessary recautions.

Wycombe High School carried out one such trial last week by taking in an army of of these baby dolls (see story on facing page).

The new mums were given a feeding bottle and a bag of nappies and told to look after their crying "babies" for three days on their own, making childcare arrangements for when they were in class or planning to go out during the weekend.

However, a crying doll that is programmed to wake at all hours and bawl its eyes out thus keeping "mum" awake at night can be conveniently chucked in the bin or given back to the manufacturer.

Real babies aren't so easy to shift.

Parents who have taken the conscious decision to put their lives on hold and have a baby would still describe bringing up a child as the toughest job in the world.

It must be a nightmare for any 15-year-old girl who is about to sit her GCSEs.

And it is not a laugh for the taxpayer when the benefits system has to bring up baby either.

Perhaps retailers could start flogging cheap chastity belts.

I am sure if each one played a "crazy frog" ring tone whenever they were used they'd fly off the shelves.