Yesterday, Halima Cisse, 25, of Mali, gave birth to nine babies, two more than doctors expected. Mali's government transferred Cisse to Morocco for the actual Caesarean delivery in order to ensure she had the care of specialists. Mom and her nonuplets are doing well and expected to return to Mali in several weeks. From the BBC:
Of the two [prior] sets of nonuplets known about – one born to a woman in Australia in 1971 and another to a woman in Malaysia in 1999 – none survived.
The first octuplets – eight babies – to all survive to grow up were born in 2009 to a woman in the US who conceived them through in vitro fertilisation.
Fanta Siby, Mali's health minister, congratulated the medical teams in both countries for the "happy outcome".
image of just three of the nonuplets: Mali's Ministry of Health and Social Development
