By Baba Ahmed and Tarik El Barakah, Associated Press
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A Malian woman has given birth to nine babies at once — after expecting seven — in what appeared to be the first time on record that a woman had given birth to nine surviving babies simultaneously. The five girls and four boys, and their mother, “are all doing well,” Mali’s health minister said. The mother, 25-year-old Halima Cisse, gave birth by caesarean section in Morocco, where she had been sent for special care because hospitals in Mali, one of the world’s poorest countries, are ill-equipped for such an exceptional multiple pregnancy.
Cisse gave birth prematurely at 30 weeks. The babies weigh between 500 grams and one kilogram. The Guinness Book of World Records confirmed its current record for most living births at once is eight, and said it was verifying the Morocco birth. The clinic’s director said to his knowledge Cisse had not used fertility treatments. Professor Yacoub Khalaf of King’s College London noted that such births would be extraordinarily unlikely without fertility treatment, and warned of the significant risks involved: “The mother was at severe risk of losing her uterus or losing her life. The babies could suffer physical and mental handicaps. The risk of cerebral palsy is astronomically higher.”