A Nunavut health official says expectant mothers' lifestyle choices, including the choice to smoke, are one reason why the territory has the highest rate of babies born pre-term in Canada.

Figures released Thursday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) show that 10.8 per cent of Nunavut babies born in hospitals between 2006 and 2007 were pre-term — meaning they were born before 37 weeks of gestation.

By comparison, the national average pre-term birth rate was 8.1 per cent.

As well, seven per cent of Nunavut babies had a low birth weight, and about eight per cent were born smaller than expected for their gestational age, the report found.

Babies born early are more likely to be small, and they are also more likely to develop health problems later in life.

"Certainly for the small babies — the low birth weight babies — smoking is a definite risk factor," Dr. Geraldine Osborne, Nunavut's deputy chief medical officer of health, told CBC News on Monday.

"We know that we have very high rates of smoking among pregnant women in Nunavut. Roughly around 80 per cent of pregnant women smoke."

Poor nutrition

She added that pregnant women who smoke are smoking more cigarettes than ever.

Osborne said other factors include poor nutrition, unsteady food supplies in many Nunavut households and a high rate of teenage pregnancy in the territory.

The CIHI report found that 22.7 per cent of babies were born to teenage mothers in Nunavut, compared to 4.8 per cent nationally (excluding Quebec).

Osborne said the first goal of Nunavut's public health strategy is to raise the rate of healthy births, which would include reducing the number of pre-term and low-weight babies and reducing the number of teen pregnancies.

Pre-term birth rates in the other northern territories were close to the national average: the Yukon's rate was 8.4 per cent, while the Northwest Territories was at 7.2 per cent.

Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador led the provinces with the highest pre-term birth rates, at 8.7 per cent and 8.6 per cent, respectively.

Data for the CIHI report came from its own discharge abstract database.