Mali woman gives rare birth to 9 babies

ANKARA – A young Malian woman became a phenomenon in a single day by safely giving birth to nine babies at once in a hospital in Morocco on Tuesday.

Halima Cisse, 25, from the West African country wrote her name in history as a mother of nonuplets – five girls and four boys – and she and the babies are all “doing well,” a written statement from the Mali Health Ministry said.

According to the evaluation of doctors both in Mali and Morocco, Cisse was initially expected to have septuplets but gave birth by caesarean section to nonuplets, shocking the doctors, who had not noticed another two siblings during ultrasounds.

After a two-week medical stay in a hospital in the Malian capital Bamako, the doctors requested specialist care for the rare case of Cisse.

On the instruction of Bah Ndaw, the interim president of Mali’s transitional government, the authorities flew her to Morocco, where she was admitted to a clinic for treatment on March 30, the ministry statement said.

The Anadolu Agency team visited the hospital where Cisse is planned to stay in the intensive care unit until Thursday.

For now, the babies are looked after in a different room.

Their tiny bodies put a smile on the faces of those who have a chance to see them.

Mother in good health

Yezid Murad, the doctor who carried out Cisse’s operation, said the mother came to their hospital five weeks before the delivery.

He said they spent intense effort for the growth of the babies while they were in the mother’s belly and added, “The operation was good and carried out under suitable conditions.”

“The mother is in good health. We will take her to her room at the clinic tomorrow (Thursday) after keeping her under observation for 24 hours.”

15-minute birth

Youssef Alaoui, the director and anesthesiologist of the hospital where the birth took place, said the intervention of the medical staff helped to avoid the risks that threaten the patient’s health.

Stating they had to carry out the operation on the 25th week of pregnancy, he said, “In fact, we wanted to extend the pregnancy period up to 30 weeks, but this week, when the birth symptoms started, we decided to have a cesarean delivery.

“The delivery only lasted for 15 minutes.”

Nonuplets are extremely rare in medical practice and sometimes some of the newborns may not survive. (Anadolu)