New developments in the case of the baby found on a beach.

A post-mortem examination to be conducted today could help police work out what happened to a baby before it was buried on a beach in Sydney’s south-east, officers say.

Two boys, aged six and seven, found the baby’s naked body while they were digging in the dunes at Maroubra Beach on Sunday morning.

The body was about 30cm below the surface of the sand.

It has not been identified and its decomposing state has made its age and gender difficult to determine.

Detective Superintendent Gavin Dengate said the results of the autopsy would hopefully help investigators answer a range of questions about the baby and what happened to it.

“Until we get the results of the post-mortem we are a little bit hamstrung to work out exactly what’s happened,” he said.

“We’re certainly looking to find the cause of death and at this stage we still haven’t got any identification of the child.”

Detective Superintendent Dengate said it was not clear how long the post-mortem process would take, but some results might not be available for up to eight weeks.

Police were also trying to find the baby’s parents and were concerned about the health of its mother, he said.

“We’ll certainly be working further today with hospitals and community workers, other areas where we may be able to gain some insight into someone who may have been pregnant around this time,” he said.

The children who discovered the body had received counselling from officers of Maroubra Surf Life Saving Club, police said.

For more information about this case, read this post here.