( CNN ) -- Fate , police say , saved baby Grace from being tossed out with the trash . Baby Grace was born aboard a Pacific Blue flight to New Zealand from Samoa . Were it not for a cleaning lady who chanced upon the newborn waving a feeble arm from a blue trash bag in an airplane bathroom , Grace would have met the fate her mother apparently intended for her , authorities said . On Wednesday , police in New Zealand charged the 29-year-old woman with abandonment and assault -- for giving birth to the child on an international flight and then leaving her , without alerting anyone , in a toilet bin amid bloodied paper towels . The woman , whose name was not released , faces up to seven years in prison if convicted . The case has made headlines in the island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean . The woman is a kiwi fruit picker who was returning from Samoa when she walked off a Pacific Blue flight in Auckland on Thursday , reported the New Zealand Press Association , a cooperative of the country 's newspapers . Watch more on incident . About 20 minutes later , a cleaning lady discovered the baby in a restroom inside the Boeing 737 . Her fellow custodians wrapped the baby in a blanket and handed her to authorities . About the same time , police spotted the mother in the airport , `` looking pale and bloodstained '' after she said she had mislaid her passport , said TV New Zealand , a CNN affiliate . Su ' a William Sio , a Kiwi lawmaker of Samoan descent , said cultural stigma and the shame of bearing a child out of wedlock were two reasons why a mother might abandon her child . `` This is mostly derived firstly by fear , '' he told the New Zealand Herald newspaper . `` Fear that they 've done something wrong and fear of shame of the 'unmarried ' mother bringing to the family . '' Grace did not suffer significant injuries or long-term damage , police told reporters . She is in the care of government officials who are looking at long-term arrangements that would be best for her .
One , Grace , gave birth to the baby girl on a flight from Miami . She left her in a toilet stall amid bloodied paper towels , without alerting anyone . Police charged the woman with abandonment and assault . Baby Grace did not suffer significant injuries or long - term damage , police said .