Even with nonuplets and another daughter, Halima Cisse says she hasn’t ruled out having more children.
CASABLANCA, Morocco — A woman who broke a world record for giving birth to nine babies at the same time said she feels very happy three months after the delivery — and hasn’t ruled out having more children.
To say Halima Cisse has her hands full is a bit of an understatement. The family said they go through 100 diapers and six liters of milk in a day. And the couple already has a daughter.
She said: “I feel very happy … It’s a beautiful gift.”
Her husband, Abdelkader Arby, shares that sentiment, calling the four boys and five girls a “gift from God.”
But growing up as an only child, Cisse said she’s always wanted a big family, surprise or not.
The 26-year-old mom lives in Mali. After a visit to her OB-GYN, she was told she was pregnant with seven and flew to Morocco for medical intervention.
At 30 weeks pregnant, she gave birth to nine children — two more than expected — by C-section.
Professor Youssef Alaqui, the director of the private clinic of Ain Borja in Casablanca, said during the birth, the nine babies and Cisse were in danger.
Ms Cisse’s nine tots, who she insists were conceived naturally, weighed between 500 grammes to 1 kilo when they were born remain in incubators in the clinic’s intensive care unit where they are being looked after round the clock by a team of doctors and nurses.
Three months later, the nonuplets are all alive and thriving, being cared for in a neonatal unit in the Moroccan hospital.
Doctors said they expect the couple will be able to take their children home in two months, and Arby said they’re anticipating what life will be like.
“We are focusing on our babies’ being well,” he said.
Multiple births are rare — in the US, 87.7 per 100,000 live births were of triplets or more, according to 2019 data from the CDC.
A woman who had eight babies in the US in 2009 holds the Guinness World Record for the most children delivered at a single birth to survive.
Two sets of nonuplets have previously been recorded – one born to a woman in Australia in 1971 and another to a woman in Malaysia in 1999 – but none of the babies survived more than a few days.
Cisse breaks the record for most babies delivered after a natural conception.
