A young Malian woman surprised the doctors by giving birth to more kids than doctors detected in her overcrowded womb. Doctors detected seven babies while the woman gave birth to nine infants, joining a small pantheon of mothers of nonuplets.
The pregnancy of Halima Cisse, 25, has fascinated the West African nation and attracted the attention of its leaders. When doctors in March said Cisse needed specialist care, authorities flew her to Morocco, where she gave birth.
“The newborns (five girls and four boys) and the mother are all doing well,” Mali’s health minister, Fanta Siby, said in a statement.
Cisse was expected to give birth to seven babies, according to ultrasounds conducted in Morocco and Mali that missed two of the siblings. All were delivered by caesarean section.
“The newborns (five girls and four boys) and the mother are all doing well,” Mali’s health minister Fanta Siby said in a statement, adding they are due to return home in several weeks’ time.
Siby offered her congratulations to “the medical teams of Mali and Morocco, whose professionalism is at the origin of the happy outcome of this pregnancy”.
Cisse was expected to give birth to septuplets (seven babies), according to ultrasounds conducted in Morocco and Mali that missed two of the babies.
Cases of women successfully carrying septuplets to term are rare – and nonuplets even rarer. Moroccan authorities have yet to confirm what would be an extremely rare case. Health ministry spokesman Rachid Koudhari said he had no knowledge of such a multiple birth having taken place in one of the country’s hospitals.
