MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Healthy nonuplets born in Casablanca from Malian mother

The Malian mother had been sent from her country to Casablanca because hospitals were not equipped to deal with her case – and she believed she was expecting only seven kids

A 25-year-old woman from the African country of Mali, who believed she was pregnant with seven babies, ended up delivering nine healthy newborns in Casablanca, Morocco, it was reported.

Mali's Health Ministry Wednesday reported that the mother, Halima Cisse, and her five girls and four boys were all doing well.

The nonuplets were delivered through a Caesarean section on Tuesday after being sent there for special care, Mali’s top health official announced. Malian doctors, under government orders, sent her to Morocco for the births because hospitals in Mali, one of the world's poorest countries, are ill-equipped to provide adequate care for such exceptional multiple pregnancies.

The babies weighed between 500 grams and one kilogram each and are kept in incubators at the private Ain Borja clinic in Casablanca. Cisse gave birth prematurely at 30 weeks and is now in stable condition after heavy bleeding for which she was given a blood transfusion.

Clinic Director Youssef Alaoui told Moroccan state TV that they had been contacted by their Malian colleagues about the case a month and a half ago. They were not expecting nine babies, he said. He added that as far as he knew Cisse had not used fertility treatments, but it is believed in the medical community that such multiple pregnancies are quite unlikely to have occurred without them.

The Guinness Book of World Records is now reportedly looking into Halima Cisse's case which would be the first time. The current record is American Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to eight premature but otherwise healthy children in 2009.