Daily Mail
Pictured all together for the first time, this is the world record-breaking NINE miracle babies born to the same mother – as the healthy brood prepare to go home.
Halima Cisse beams proudly with her nonuplets, five months after she made headlines around the globe when she gave birth at the Ain Borja clinic in Casablanca, Morocco, breaking the previous world record set by ‘Octomum’ Nadya Suleman in 2009, who gave birth to eight babies that survived.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Ms Cisse, 26, said: ‘All of them are getting on very well, and are a joy to look after. They are getting stronger every day and it may well be they are allowed to leave full time medical care soon, so that we can take them home.’
Ms Cisse’s nine tots, who were conceived naturally, each weighed between 500gm to 1kg when they were born and had to remain in incubators in the clinic’s intensive care unit where they were looked after round the clock by a team of doctors and nurses for the first few months of their lives.
But now all nine have gained weight and continued to thrive meaning they can soon go back to their home country, Mali.
As the babies approach six months, Ms Cisse and her partner Kader Arby, 35, celebrated by releasing these touching new photographs showing them together as a group.
The new pictures show the boys – Oumar, Elhadji, Bah and Mohammed VI – in green romper suits bearing the word ‘Brother’ on them.
The girls – Adama, Oumou, Hawa, Kadidia, and Fatouma – meanwhile wear a mixture of pink and baby blue outfits.
All the Arby tots are Malian nationals, and they were last week visited by Djaminatou Sangare, the country’s Health Minister, who worked out how they could be safely flown to Bamako, the Malian capital, which is some two-and-a-half thousand miles from Casablanca.
They were taken off incubators in early August since when the family have been living together in flat close to the hospital so the medical staff can continue to monitor them.
We revealed in July how Halima was getting through a staggering 100 nappies per day and six litres of milk – but that she was too tired to look after them and spent most of her days sleeping and watching television. But now her strength is returning too.
‘Giving birth to one child is hard enough but having nine is unimaginable,’ said Halima. ‘It’s astonishing the amount of work that is involved in looking after them. I’m grateful to the medical team that are doing all the hard work and the Government of Mali for funding this.’
Halima gave birth by Caesarean section, accompanied by her sister, Aisha, while her husband initially stayed behind at their home in Timbuktu, Mali.
Describing the birth, Halima said: ‘As the babies were coming out, there were so many questions going through my mind. I was very aware of what was going on and it seemed as if there was an endless stream of babies coming out of me.
She added: ‘My sister was holding my hand but all I could think about was how would I look after them and who was going to help me?’
Kader was originally unable to travel due to COVID travel restrictions, but finally arrived in Morocco on July 9, after spending ten days in quarantine.
