Giving birth is a miraculous feat in itself. The toll it takes on a woman’s body and the sheer joy of this new life being brought into the world is priceless. Now, imagine a woman doing that nine times in a row–in one setting!
You don’t have to imagine it, because Halima Cissé just gave birth to nine babies! She was expecting to have only seven newborns, but ultrasound sessions had failed to spot two of her babies. Cissé, who just turned 25, gave birth by cesarean section.
Professor Youssef Alaoui, medical director of the private Ain Borja clinic in Casablanca, Morocco, where Cissé gave birth, said the babies were born at 30 weeks. The newborns weighed between 500 grams and 1 kilogram (about 1.1 to 2.2 pounds).
At the time of this article, the BBC stated that Cissé is in intensive care, but her condition is stable, Alaoui said, explaining that she suffered a severe hemorrhage related to the expansion of her uterus.
During her stay at the clinic, doctors sought to delay the birth for weeks, to give the fetuses additional time to develop.
The clinic has deployed a team of around 30 staff members to aid in the mother’s delivery and care for her nine children.
The babies have underdeveloped immune systems, meaning they are at high risk of potentially contracting a deadly infection, according to Alaoui, but he still remains optimistic.
“There is still work to do because they are very premature,” Alaoui told CNN. “They need to gain weight, they need to breastfeed. There are lots of problems waiting for us.”
More than 72 hours later…