Auckland, Feb 18 NZPA - A woman alleged to have left her 13-month old baby boy alone in a bath for 15 minutes is facing a murder charge.

The mother, 29, appeared in the High Court at Auckland yesterday when a manslaughter charge was upgraded to a murder charge. The woman cannot be named, the New Zealand Herald reported today.

The baby and his sister, five, had been away from their parents for eight months and returned two days before he died.

Detective Sergeant Megan Goldie, of the Waitakere police, said the murder charge was laid when the case was reviewed.

The newspaper reported court documents said that the woman told police she experienced a "rollercoaster of feelings and emotions" when she learned that the children were to return home to her care.

She was unsure she was going to be able to cope, had been unable to sleep and was not feeling emotionally strong.

The woman had ran a deep bath for her son, put him in and left the room for about 15 minutes.

When she returned, the child was face down in the water, limp, blue and lifeless.

She shook him, dried him, wrapped him in a towel and shook him again before placing him on her bed and covering him with a blanket.

Police say the woman had done first-aid courses, was a trained dietitian, and had worked in hospitals in Fiji, giving advice to mothers and young children on childhood nutrition and development but did not try to resuscitate the infant or call emergency services or her husband.

The woman was remanded on bail for trial in August.

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