STAYING at home with their babies is a luxury many women can no longer afford. That could be changing.

The Childcare Commission yesterday recommended that £150 be paid to women with children up to three years old to enable them to stay home with their babies. Or they could use it to pay for childcare.

If you're on the National Minimum Wage of £3.70 per hour, you'd have to work a 40-hour week to get £150. Child benefit for the first child is £15-a-week, about the cost of half a pair of toddler's shoes. It doesn't go far.

There are many reasons why women of young children go out to work. Some don't want to be at home doing the baby routine. Some return as soon as they can because their careers would be jeopardised by a long break.

But many have no choice. They simply can't afford to be at home, however much they want to bring up their babies themselves. So they leave the baby with friends or relatives - cheap childcare - and go back, sooner than they want to, upsetting themselves and, quite probably, upsetting their baby as well.

Welcoming the proposals, Christine Gowdridge of the Maternity Alliance, says that many women don't even use the amount of maternity leave they are allowed because their income plummets to such a level. "This ought to be the happiest time of a young couple's life. The reality is that it is a real struggle," she says.

Meanwhile, the relatively well off can choose what to do. As always, money buys choice. Of course, £150 is not going to tempt the Nicola Horlicks of this world to give up the excitements of corporate finances for a day of mashed bananas and nappy changing. But for many women, it could make a difference.

The interesting aspect of the plan is that it's not just for stay-at-homes. You could spend it on child care if you wish, or give it to Granny for baby sitting. Of course, there will doubtless be some mothers who will spend it on drink or dope or nights out. There will be the usual accusations of teenage girls getting pregnant just for the money. But no system is perfect.

But, it is a sign that government actually cares about what's best for mothers and children. And for thousands of mothers, the scheme could offer a real choice.

"A woman's right to choose." It always was a good slogan.