Police are growing increasingly concerned for the welfare of a mother whose newborn baby was found dead and wrapped in a blanket in the backyard of a Lower Hutt property yesterday morning.
Police have been trying to find the mother after the infant's body was found in the back garden of a Taita Drive property, Hutt Valley Tactical Response Manager Inspector Shane Cotter said.
A woman had gone to her washing line when she found the baby, who appeared to be no more than 24 hours old, wrapped in a towel in her back garden.
"She still had part of her umbilical cord attached. We have not located the placenta, which makes us worried for the wellbeing of the mother, who may require urgent medical attention," Mr Cotter said.
Police were continuing to canvas the area today.
"We encourage this mother to come forward and speak with us. We know she will be scared and potentially in a state of shock but our priority is to ensure she seeks the medical attention she requires."
Taita Drive resident Maria Tagoai yesterday said her neighbour, a woman in her 50s, was hanging out the washing when she made the discovery.
"She went outside to hang her washing and she saw a dead baby, a dead body of a newborn baby at her garden, and she collapsed," she said.
"The baby was wrapped up in a green towel."
Ms Tagoai said the woman and her husband, who was at work at the time, were the only people who lived at the property and there was nobody there who may have been pregnant.
A post-mortem examination of the baby would be carried out tomorrow morning, which would help police determine if the baby girl was alive at the time of her birth or not, Mr Cotter said.
