Police in France say a woman has admitted to suffocating eight newborn babies.

Speaking to police investigators, the woman allegedly admitted she had committed the killings because she did not want more children.

She said she had also wanted to avoid the embarrassment of asking for contraception at a pharmacy.

Dominique Cottrez, 45, has been charged with murder, after remains of two newborns buried in plastic bags were found in the former residence of her parents in Villers-au-Tertre, northern France

The skeletal remains of six other infants were later also found in the garage of the mother's current home.

They had been placed in plastic sacks and dumped.

While Cottrez has been charged, her husband has been freed after denying any knowledge of the killings.

Police were convinced the heavy build of Dominique Cottrez had concealed the pregnancies from her husband and other friends.

The babies were suffocated shortly after their births between 1989 and 2006.