(Photo credit: Mali Health Ministry)
Giving birth is a miraculous feat in itself. The toll it takes on a woman’s body and the sheer joy of this new life being brought into the world is priceless. Now, imagine a woman doing that nine times in a row–in one setting!
You don’t have to imagine it, because Halima Cissé just gave birth to nine babies! She was expecting to have only seven newborns, but ultrasound sessions had failed to spot two of her babies. Cissé, who just turned 25, gave birth by cesarean section.
Professor Youssef Alaoui, medical director of the private Ain Borja clinic in Casablanca, Morocco, where Cissé gave birth, said the babies were born at 30 weeks. The newborns weighed between 500 grams and 1 kilogram (about 1.1 to 2.2 pounds).
At the time of this article, the BBC stated that Cissé is in intensive care, but her condition is stable, Alaoui said, explaining that she suffered a severe hemorrhage related to the expansion of her uterus.
During her stay at the clinic, doctors sought to delay the birth for weeks, to give the fetuses additional time to develop.
The clinic has deployed a team of around 30 staff members to aid in the mother’s delivery and care for her nine children.
The babies have underdeveloped immune systems, meaning they are at high risk of potentially contracting a deadly infection, according to Alaoui, but he still remains optimistic.
“There is still work to do because they are very premature,” Alaoui told CNN. “They need to gain weight, they need to breastfeed. There are lots of problems waiting for us.”
More than 72 hours later…
three are still intubated, relying on the machines to pump air into their tiny lungs, the hospital’s communications director, according to Abdelkoddous Hafsi, the communications director for Groupe Akdital, which owns the clinic.
During childbirth, Cissé’s husband, Adjudant Kader Arby, remained in Mali with their daughter, according to the BBC.
(Photo Credit: Kader Arby/Facebook/CNN.com)
Arby told the network he’s “very happy” that his wife and the nine babies are doing well.
He also says the family has been overwhelmed by the support they have received.
“Everybody called me! Everybody called! The Malian authorities called expressing their joy. I thank them… Even the president called me.”
The current world record for the number of live births is eight – a mark set by Nadya Suleman of California in 2009, according to Guinness World Records. But that feat also sparked controversy as medical experts and the public debated the use of fertility treatments to produce octuplets. Suleman’s eight children were delivered nine weeks premature, also by C-section.
A Guinness World Records representative told NPR that “we are yet to verify this as a record as the wellbeing of both the mother and babies are of top priority.” The organization said it’s looking into the possible new record, employing a specialist consultant for the case.
The clinic says it plans to keep the nonuplets in care for at least three months, alongside their mother.
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