The woman who gave birth to a baby on an international flight from Samoa to Auckland has been charged with abandoning the baby girl and assaulting her.

The 29-year-old Samoan woman’s baby was now in the care of Child Youth and Family (CYF) and the woman due to appear in the Manukau District Court today.

Police today announced the woman had been charged, six days after cleaners found the baby in a toilet rubbish bin on a Pacific Blue flight from Samoa to Auckland.

The mother apparently was on her way to New Zealand to work as a kiwifruit picker when her daughter was born.

The infant was found after the woman had left the aircraft. The mother and baby were both taken to Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland.