Nationwide — Halima Cisse, a 25-year old woman from the country of Mali, recently gave birth to 9 babies at once and all of them survived, which apparently broke a world record!
Cisse gave birth by cesarean section on May 4 in Ain Borja clinic in Casablanca, Morocco. The doctors, along with the Malian government, decided to send her to Morocco for special care due to the lack of equipment necessary for multiple-fetal pregnancy in hospitals in the West African country.
Cisse had been originally expecting 7 babies, according to the ultrasound results when she was pregnant. Doctors were surprised to find 2 more when she gave birth.
The babies — five girls and four boys — were born prematurely at 30 weeks and weighed between 500 grams to 1 kilogram. They are currently under regular observation in incubators. The mother suffered heavy bleeding and was put in intensive care but is now in a stable condition.
“The newborns and the mother are all doing well,” according to Mali’s health minister Dr. Fanta Siby.
Meanwhile, Cisse’s husband, Adjudant Kader Arby, stayed in Mali with their older daughter. He said he is in regular contact with his wife and he is happy that they are all safe.
“Everybody called me! Everybody called!” he said, according to BBC. “The Malian authorities called expressing their joy. I thank them… even the president called me.”
Moreover, the Guinness Book of World Records is looking to verify if Cisse’s birth became the most children delivered at a single birth who have survived. The current record was set in 2009 after Nadya Suleman, who is American, gave birth to 8 premature but healthy babies.
It has yet been known if Cisse took fertility treatments for her pregnancy, as Suleman did. But according to Youssef Alaoui, the clinic director, as far as he knows, Cisse did not receive such treatments.