Three senior judges called for the "outdated" law on infanticide to be re-examined as they upheld the conviction of a mother for the murder of her baby son yesterday.

The Deputy Chief Justice, Lord Justice Judge, sitting with Mrs Justice Hallett and Mr Justice Leveson, ruled that there was "ample evidence before the jury to justify the verdict" in the case of Chaha' Oh-Niyol Kai-Whitewind.

Kai-Whitewind (29) who is serving life for the murder of 12- week- old Bidziil, was present in the dock at the Court of Appeal in London to hear the judges announce that her December 2003 conviction by a jury at Birmingham Crown Court was "safe".

Although the appeal was dismissed, Lord Justice Judge commented: "The law relating to infanticide is unsatisfactory and outdated.

"The appeal in this sad case demonstrates the need for a thorough re-examination."

The prosecution's case at trial was that Kai-Whitewind, from Maas Road, Northfield, Birmingham, who already had two children, killed baby Bidziil by asphyxiation on August 1, 2002, after becoming frustrated with his refusal to breastfeed.

Kai- Whitewind, who changed her name after adopting a native American culture, denied murder throughout her trial, during which the issue was whether the child was the victim of a deliberate killing or died from natural causes.

After ruling that "the conviction of this mother for murder stands", Lord Justice Judge added that the issues of infanticide and diminished responsibility did not arise for consideration at trial or on appeal "and just because they did not, we shall add some observations about infanticide".

Pointing out that last year the Home Office announced a comprehensive review of the law of murder, he stressed: "The public interest requires that the problems arising from and connected to the offence of infanticide should be included in any review."

He highlighted "two particular areas of concern".

"The first is whether, as a matter of substantive law, infanticide should extend to circumstances subsequent to the birth, but connected with it, such as the stresses imposed on a mother by the absence of natural bonding with her baby; in short, whether the current definition of infanticide reflects modern thinking."

He added: "The second problem arises when the mother who has in fact killed her infant is unable to admit it.

"This may be because she is too unwell to do so, or too emotionally disturbed by what she has in fact done, or too deeply troubled by the consequences of an admission of guilt on her ability to care for any surviving children.

"When this happens, it is sometimes difficult to produce psychiatric evidence relating to the balance of the mother's mind. Yet, of itself, it does not automatically follow from denial that the balance of her mind was not disturbed: in some cases it may indeed help to confirm that it was."

Lawyers for Kai-Whitewind had hoped that findings in the case of Angela Cannings, who had her convictions for the murders of her two baby sons quashed by the Court of Appeal in December 2003, would lead to the overturning of her conviction.

But the judges ruled that the Cannings case had "no direct application to the present appeal".

Lord Justice Judge said that although a "great deal of effort was made after conviction to produce additional evidence with which to undermine the verdict of the jury, we have found nothing in any of it which leads us to doubt the safety of the conviction".