A short film by Dr Marewa Glover uses humor to encourage whānau to quit smoking alongside pregnant family members. The film has won two awards at the Global Forum on Nicotine Film Festival in Poland.
First-time mother-to-be Dorothy Hape has welcomed the film, Tiakina Wāhine Hapū - Nurture Women in Pregnancy.
"I found out that I was pregnant so the right thing to do was to give up smoking for the both of us," she says.
The 21-year-old from Mangere, who is in the first trimester of her pregnancy, has already taken extra precautions to keep her baby safe. She wants the baby to have a healthy upbringing and encourages more māmā to give up smoking while pregnant as well.
"I think more Māori māmā should be giving up because it's what we give to our babies and we want the best for them."
Glover (Ngāpuhi), who specialises in smoking cessation, says, "The cessation programs, the free nicotine patches, the gum, everything I was told 'this will work, this is the most effective thing, this is the best thing we can do to get people to stop'. It hasn't worked for our people."
The new film takes the seriousness out of the situation but even though the film is humorous the message is still understood.
Glover took the short film to different focus group events and presented it to the target audience, Māori mums, and the response she got back was varied.
"Some said 'that's too subtle, you've got to hit them with the facts. You've got to show them what they're doing to their babies'. While others say 'that's not real, my family ain't like that', because in the video it's that whole real positivity and the whānau are celebratory about being hapū and they're all going through some of the symptoms with her."
Research says that almost half of 18 to 24-year-old Māori women are unable to stop smoking when they're pregnant, reasons include other people continuing to smoke around them when they're pregnant and leaving cigarettes lying around- factors that can trigger a relapse.
Hape says, "Most Māori families, they have a few smokers amongst them and for the best for your baby you want everyone to be just involved and help change, to encourage you more to change with them. It just would be so much easier for our mums to stop smoking while they're pregnant if everyone else did it with her. It's that message- when one of us is pregnant, all of us are pregnant."
Glover says the award-winning short film will become a resource for many Māori, including Hape. She is expecting the arrival of her first child in March next year.