Police make plea to dead baby's mum

Police are imploring the mother of a baby boy found in a Hastings sewer on Monday to contact them.

A plumber found the stillborn baby in a council sewer drain in Cobham Place.

Police have called the baby Aaron, which is the name of Moses' brother in the Bible.

A 15-strong investigation team will continue today trying to find the person who flushed baby Aaron down the toilet from one of 12 houses.

Detective Senior Sergeant Sam Aberahama said police had concerns for the health of the baby's mother.

"It is extremely important for her to make contact with her doctor."

Police were looking at some possibilities as to whom the mother might be.

But Mr Aberahama said he could not comment about those inquiries in case they did not eventuate into anything.

"Several names have been supplied and we are working with our medical professionals to determine whether they are involved in this inquiry or not," he said.

Aaron's body had been returned to Hastings after the post mortem was carried out in Wellington. He was now with funeral directors.

The area canvassed by police yesterday extended to another nearby street.

Most residents in the area had been spoken to, Mr Aberahama said. Visitors to the Cobham Place houses were mostly from Hawkes Bay and were still being identified.

None of the 12 houses from which the baby could have come from had been ruled out of the inquiry, he said.

Hanna Mafaufau, 20, from Cobham Place, called the plumber to fix the drain of her house before baby Aaron was found.

She said yesterday that she felt upset by what had happened and had no idea as to who the mother of baby Aaron might be.

Women who conceal their pregnancies then dispose of their babies can face up to two years jail.

A prosecutor at the Crown Law Office in Auckland said that the name of the charge used for such cases was concealing the body of a child.

It covered the act of concealing a pregnancy and then disposing of the baby after giving birth, regardless of whether the child was born alive or stillborn.

Aaron is the second Hastings baby to have been found abandoned in the past month. Police called the first baby, who was found in a garden, Moses.

They said that in both cases their priority was not to charge anyone.

They were more concerned about the physical and mental health of the two mothers.