Mali woman gives birth to nonuplets
The ultrasound showed she was expecting seven babies – no one suspected two more were hiding among their siblings in their mom’s belly
TCOMPILED BY COLIN HENDRICKS
HE couple thought they were well prepared for the arrival of their bumper brood. They had seven of everything – cots, bottles, dummies, prams, tiny clothes and fleecy blankets – and although it seemed daunting at times, they were ready.
On 4 May, Halima Cissé was wheeled into the operating theatre to deliver her septuplets via C-section – but what happened next made world news and stunned Halima, her husband, Kader
Arby, and the team of medical professionals. Halima had been receving specialist care during her pregnancy when it became obvious she was carrying multiple babies. Two ultrasounds – one in her homeland of Mali and another in Morocco where she’d been admitted to a private clinic – clearly showed seven little souls in her womb.
But as doctors lifted out baby after baby, they discovered two more had been hiding in her uterus, which was so crowded it was impossible to detect all nine foetuses. And so Halima (25) became one of only a few known women to give birth to nonuplets.
She became an instant celebrity in Mali and Morocco – and if her nine babies all survive, she’ll become the only woman in the world to have nonuplets. Two other women have delivered nonuplets – one in Australia in 1971 and the other in Malaysia in 1999 – but both lost all nine babies shortly after birth.
Halima’s infants – four boys and five girls – were all doing as well as could be expected at the time of going to print. The children will remain in incubators for three months in the Ain Borja Clinic in Casablanca, Morocco, when hopefully they’ll be strong enough to go home.
Two of the babies are on ventilators to help them to breathe but their proud dad is hopeful about the future of all nine.
“I can’t wait to see my new children,” says Kader (35), a military official who stayed home in Timbuktu, Mali,
to care for the couple’s firstborn, twoand-a-half-year-old, Souda. The little girl can’t wait to meet her nine siblings, Kader says, and keeps asking about them. “God gave us these children. He’s the one to decide what will happen to them. I’m not worried about that. When the Almighty does something, He knows why.”
WHEN Halima discovered she was having what she thought were seven babies, her story made the local news and there was so much attention surrounding her pregnancy in the West African state that the health minister arranged for her to travel to Morocco for specialist care.
The nonuplets Halima are was doing 25 weeks well, doctors preg say. They’re getting specialist care in Morocco.
Halima was 25 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to the Casablanca clinic. Doctors wanted to extend her pregnancy to 30 weeks to give the babies a better chance. Dr Yazid Mouraid, one of the specialists, says the babies’ chances of survival were around 80% if they were born at 30 weeks and received proper medical care.
And so, at 30 weeks, Halima went into surgery – and the big nine-babies reveal was made. The infants weighed between 500g and 1kg each and were delivered by a team of 10 doctors while 25 paramedics were on standby in case something went wrong.
As it turned out, Halima had a close call. The pressure caused by the weight of her uterus and the amniotic fluid – a total of 40kg – ruptured the artery in her womb and she suffered heavy blood loss.
However, after a blood transfusion she was on the mend and is now doing well, the clinic’s medical director, Professor Youssef Alaoui, says. “She’s not in danger anymore.”
Two of the boy babies have been namedMohammed and Bah, after Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and Mali’s President Bah Ndaw, as a token of gratitude for the help the two countries provided.
The other two boys are Elhadji and Oumar, while the girls are Hawa, Adama, Fatouma, Oumou and Kadidia.
There’s no information on whether the babies were conceived as a result of fertility drugs or IVF treatment. Professor Alaoui says as far as the clinic knows, no intervention was used.
Kader, who married Halima in 2017 when she was studying human resources management, says the support and encouragement they’ve been receiving has been overwhelming.
“Everybody called me! Everybody called! The Malian authorities called expressing their joy. I thank them. Even the president called me.” The couple are taking the two extra babies in their stride.
“It was a surprise,” Kader admits, “but we were delighted anyway. It was a blessing from God.”
Halima is recovering but needs to rest now, he says. And with nine newborns, she’s going to need all the strength she can get.
‘EVERYBODY CALLED ME. EVEN THE PRESIDENT CALLED ME’