Dominique Cottrez, 46, and her husband Pierre-Marie were arrested over what could be France's biggest infanticide case.
The woman from Villers-au-Tertre, about 125 miles north of Paris, has been charged by police and is accused of "murder of minors under the age of 15".
Her husband, a carpenter in his 40s, was freed because there was not enough evidence to charge him.
He denied knowing about the babies being born or killed.
The couple's daughters, who were in court earlier to support their parents, said: "We have been aware of this for days now and it's still hard to understand.
"It's incomprehensible, mother with secrets. We didn't notice anything. She had moments of fatigue it's true, but she worked almost 24 hours a day between her job as a care worker and household chores."
The daughters both have a son each. The eldest daughter said that when her child was born "mum was in the maternity wing with me when I gave birth.
"She held him and she dressed him. We both had tears in our eyes."
The daughters said Cottrez looked after her two grandchildren and they now want her to undergo psychological treatment and that she is cared for.
One added: "Now that this is known, she must feel relieved. She's got nothing to hide." They also hope their father will be left alone.
Cottrez initially confessed in custody to smothering two children at birth about 10 years ago, before admitting she killed the other six.
The killer said, after a bad experience with her first pregnancy, that she never wanted to see a doctor again.
Prosecutor Eric Vaillant said: "She explained that she didn't want any more children and that she didn't want to see a doctor to take contraceptives."
Police are not yet certain of the precise dates of each child's death, but "there were births between 1989 and 2006 or 2007," he said.
Cottrez, a nurse's aide by profession, admitted delivering the babies herself and placing the corpses in plastic bags.
She told police she buried two of the newborns in a garden and hid the rest of them in her garage.
Mr Vaillant added that the woman will remain in custody to undergo further psychiatric testing.
Police had used sniffer dogs to search an address in Villers-au-Tertre after the new owners of a home found the bones of two infants while digging in their garden.
Sky's Alex Rossi, reporting from the village, said the house previously belonged to Cottrez's parents.
Search teams then headed on to the couple's home in another part of the village, where six more sets of remains were found.
Neighbours were astonished at the couple's arrest. "They are normal people, who even have a role in the community. It's incredible," said one.
Another neighbour, a man in his 50s, added: "These are attractive, helpful, polite and courteous people, who did nothing to make you think them capable of anything abnormal."
Darasa 45: Maisha yetu kama zoezi la matofali
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Darasa linakukumbusha kuwa...… Watu watatu ni mimi na wewe. Watu kumi ni
mimi na wewekwa sababu kuna watu tumesimama nyuma yao. Lakini pia, ni watu
wetu ...
1 year ago
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