Bizarre ad aims to scare potential teen mums

The British National Health Service has come out with a humdinger of an ad designed to discourage teenage girls from getting pregnant.

The ad features a schoolgirl giving birth in a playground as her schoolmates look on. Salon describes it:

Legs splayed, thighs bloodied, a baby's head emerges from between her legs to the rowdy cries of the crowd. This isn't an episode of TLC's "Maternity Ward," though, it's a viral ad campaign: The mother is a schoolgirl, and she's giving birth on the playground. Not only that, but the whole school is watching. (OMG, embarrassing!)

Exactly what the hell is this supposed to teach young women? That birth is shameful and horrible? Perhaps the NHS is unaware that childbirth often involves vaginas and blood, irrespective of whether the mother involved is a teenager.

Substituting the message 'birth is yucky' for 'there are good reasons not to have children too early' is a cheap, lazy public health tactic from the NHS. Did they take a leaf from ALAC's book?