A Malian woman who gave birth to the world’s only nonuplets last year finally returned home with her nine babies yesterday.
Halima Cissé, 27, was sent to Morocco for special care ahead of the birth of her five girls and four boys. The delivery of the babies in May last year made a new Guinness World Record for the most children delivered in a single birth to have survived.
Announcing her return, the country’s health minister Dieminatou Sangare told AFP that the mother and children landed safely and in healthy conditions.
“Joy and satisfaction to see them in good health. The mother and babies are doing well and have arrived safe and sound in Mali,” she told the French news agency.
Nonuplets are extremely rare, and until last year, no cases had been reported of nine babies from a single birth surviving for more than a few hours.
At the time of her delivery, Ms Cissé had been expecting seven babies, with ultrasounds missing the other two.
Her case fascinated the West African nation and attracted the attention of its leaders. In March 2021, when doctors said she needed specialist care, authorities flew her to Morocco, where she gave birth.
Before her transfer in late March, she had spent two weeks at a hospital in Bamako, Mali’s capital, according to the country’s health minister.
The babies are five girls – Adama, Oumou, Hawa, Kadidia and Fatouma – and four boys – Oumar, Elhadji, Bah and Mohammed VI.
They were born prematurely with the help of a caesarean section on 4 May 2021, 30 weeks into Ms Cissé’s pregnancy.
The previous record for the most number of babies born was held by the US’s Nadya Suleman, also known as “Octomom”, in 2009.
The first recorded set of nonuplets was in Sydney in the 1970s. None of the babies survived.
More recently, a woman in Texas gave birth to sextuplets – two sets of twin boys and one set of twin girls – in 2019.
