The lucky woman with the babies inset
A 25-year-old Malian woman, who was expecting seven babies, has given birth to nine, two more than what doctors had detected on the ultrasound inside her crowded womb.
Halima Cisse, on Tuesday, joined a small group of mothers of nonuplets after her delivery in a hospital in Morocco, having fascinated her compatriots and attracted the attention of the nation’s leaders.
In March this year, Malian authorities flew Cisse to Morocco when doctors indicated that she needed specialist care, and gave birth to five girls and four boys at the Moroccan hospital.
At birth she discovered that scans conducted in Morocco and Mali had missed two of the babies, according to Reuters report, which added that “all nine of the babies were delivered by caesarean section.”
It quoted Mali’s Health Minister, Fanta Siby, as having indicated in a statement that all the newborns and their mother were all doing well.
She said the mother and her babies were due to return home in several weeks’ time; even though doctors had been concerned about Cisse’s health, as well as her babies’ chances of survival.
Minister Siby congratulated the “medical teams of Mali and Morocco, whose professionalism is at the origin of the happy outcome of this pregnancy.”
Reports say nonuplets are extremely rare and that medical complications in multiple births tend to affect some of the babies’ full term reach.
By Ernest Kofi Adu