A woman has been charged with the murder of eight children found dead in a Cairns house on Friday.

Northern Region detectives charged the 37-year-old woman with eight counts of murder.

She appeared before Magistrate Alan Comans in a bedside hearing at the Cairns Base Hospital on Sunday morning.

She was charged under the name Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday. She is also known as Mersane Warria.