A 30-year-old woman accused of attempted murder following the discovery of a baby boy in a drain in Sydney’s west will remain behind bars until her next court appearance.

The woman did not appear for the brief hearing at Blacktown Local Court on Monday but the court reportedly heard that she gave birth to the child seven days ago after a very lengthy labour.

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The court heard she will appear at Penrith Local Court on Friday.

No application for bail was made and it was formally refused.

Despite earlier estimates that the boy was two to three days old, police later said that he is seven days old and had been placed in the Quakers Hill drain on Tuesday, 24 hours after being born.

If the allegation is true, it means he survived in the drain for five days before being found by a passing cyclist David Otte on Sunday morning.

The baby is now in a stable condition at Westmead Children’s Hospital.

Police suspect the baby was squeezed through the stormwater drain’s narrow opening and dropped about 2.4 metres.

After he was heard screaming on Sunday, several people lifted the heavy slab covering the drain to get him out.

The baby is now in the care of the NSW Family and Community Services (FACS) Minister.

It will be up to the state agency to assess what now happens to him.

Miracle discovery

Mr Otte and his daughter Hayley reportedly heard the baby screaming from inside the drain.

“We actually thought it was a kitten at first, but when we went down there we could hear exactly what it was, you could definitely tell it was a baby screaming,” Mr Otte told The Daily Telegraph.

Thankfully, the baby was found before Sydney’s 40-degree heatwave hit.

After he was found on Sunday, it took six people to lift the heavy 200kg slab covering the drain to get him out.