The Federal Government has commissioned a new advertising campaign it hopes can reduce rates of smoking among pregnant and Indigenous women.

Around one in every seven pregnant women smoke but that figure rises to half for pregnant Indigenous women.

The campaign will run for four weeks with television and print ads promoting the benefits of quitting for both the mother and baby and offering support via a helpline and a smart phone app.

Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek says there is a separate ad targeted at Indigenous women and their partners.

"The Breaking the chain ads show both Indigenous men and women talking about how they want to be alive to look after their kids, that they want to be strong and healthy and around when their kids grow up," she said.

"Those ads have worked very effectively in Indigenous communities and had good responses from the people that they're targeted to."

Ms Plibersek says the campaign promotes the benefits of quitting, rather than the negative impacts of smoking.

"If the message is too negative, sometimes people can completely switch off," she said.

The Cancer Council's Ian Olver has welcomed the tone of the campaign.

"The best way of encouraging pregnant women to stop smoking is to support them rather than condemn them," he said.

He says he expects pregnant smokers will respond well to the gentler message.

"You do find every so often there's a group that really don't respond and I think the Government have been clever in doing the proper testing and discovering the best way of encouraging pregnant women to stop smoking," he said.

The campaign comes as plain packaged cigarettes hit store shelves from next month.