A 26-year-old woman in Mali recently gave birth to nine babies by caesarean section at a hospital in Morocco, breaking the world record set by "octotes" Nadya Suleman in 2009. Nine children are still in the intensive care unit of the hospital, and the cost of nursing care has reached 1 million pounds, all of which are paid by the Malian government.
Former world record holder and "octot" Nadia Suleiman.
Halima Cisse, 26, reportedly gave birth to nine babies, five women and 4 men, weighed between 500 and 1,000 grams at birth, at the Ein Borja Hospital in Casablanca, Morocco, on May 5, and is still in an incubator in the intensive care unit, cared for 24 hours a day by a team of doctors and nurses.
Nine babies, 5 women and 4 men, took 20 minutes to be born.
Halima insisted she conceived naturally and only learned she had 9 children a few minutes before the caesarean section.
She said she was still recovering after nearly three months of a grueling delivery, visiting her babies only twice a day for up to 30 minutes to "connect" with them.
Halima almost died of excessive blood loss during childbirth, and doctors estimated that her stomach weighed nearly 30 kilograms. With the assistance of 9 medical staff, it took 9 babies 20 minutes to be born.
The lightest infant, Abi, has been injected intravenously, about 1.5 kg.
Halima said: "The amount of work it takes to take care of them is staggering. I am grateful to the medical team that did all the hard work and the government of Mali for their funding. ”
According to reports, the current nine children are fed milk every two hours, drinking a total of 6 liters of formula milk per day, while using 100 diapers to change every two hours. They also undergo a health check-up every 3 hours.
Halima and husband Khadr.
Khalima's husband, Khadr Albi, 35, is a Malian naval soldier who was forced to stay in Timbuktu, Mali due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Khadr did not arrive in Morocco until July 9, and did not see his nine children for the first time after 10 days of quarantine.
It is reported that the couple married in 2017 and already have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Suda, who is cared for by relatives.
Khadr said caring for his family would face "challenges" financially and would now have to expand the house to accommodate their 10 children.
Doctors in Mali initially informed the couple that Halima was pregnant with seven babies and they feared that any one of them would have a survival rate of less than 50 percent.
Halima said she and her husband did not rule out the possibility of having more children.
Halima spent two weeks in a hospital in The Mali capital, Bamako, before being transferred to Morocco with the intervention of Mali's transitional president, Bah N'Daw.
One of the newborn boys was reportedly named after the King of Morocco, "Mohammed", and the other boy, Ba, was named after the former President of Mali. The couple said it was to thank the governments of both countries for their help.
Doctors revealed that the health of all 9 babies has improved significantly, with the heaviest baby now weighing just over 3 kg and the lightest baby, Abi, who has been injecting intravenously, at about 1.5 kg.
Surprisingly, Khalima said she and her husband did not rule out the possibility of having more children.
Text/Nandu reporter Chen Lin