Of those smokers, 80% smoked throughout their pregnancy.

"Even when pregnant Maori women quit smoking while they are carrying, their whanau may continue to smoke, exposing unborn children and their mothers to the dangers of second-hand smoke," Walker said

Smoking during pregnancy accounted for Maori having the second-highest rate of sudden infant death syndrome in the world.

It was also linked to higher rates of asthma, burns and fire deaths, childhood cancer, pneumonia and developmental delays, she said.

Te Hotu Manawa Maori had invested in television advertising to educate women about smoking, but more needed to be done, Walker said.

Canterbury District Health Board executive director of Maori and Pacific health Hector Matthews said smoking in pregnancy had a profound effect on the health of mothers and children.

Young Maori women were taking up smoking in greater number, bucking the trend of dropping rates among other New Zealanders, he said.

The message that smoking was bad had been around for a long time but it was obviously not striking a chord with Maori women, Matthews said.

"The issue with smoking for young women is hooked up with finding their place in the world or showing they are as cool as the boys," he said.

"As much as people don't like to talk about it, it is also associated with weight loss. That's now, whereas the threat of cancer is in the distant future."

Matthews said public health services needed to do a lot more to warn young Maori about smoking, but a lot of the motivation and encouragement for smoking came from the home, where it was difficult for health workers to reach people.

Health board member Elizabeth Cunningham said that while the figures on the number of Maori who smoke through pregnancy were new, it was not unexpected.

The rates were frightening, she said.

"We need to start asking questions about why the message is not getting through to our young women," Cunningham said.

By KIM THOMAS  http://www.stuff.co.nz