A MUM has returned home to Mali with her nine babies – all born at the same time – after spending 19 months in a Morocco hospital.
Halima Cissé, 27, certainly has her hands full with her children, the world’s first documented nonuplets.
Halima said her nine children require up to 45 nappy changes a day, and drink 15kg of formula per week.
Proud father Abdelkader Arby said each child has shown a unique personality and habits.
He said to the BBC: “Some are quiet, while other make more noise and cry a lot. Some want to be picked up all the time. They are all very different, which is entirely normal.”
Taking care of the army of babies is a job in itself, and the couple has a schedule they stick to.
Abdelkader said: “We try to organise ourselves: From 10am, the babies are usually in the living room where there is a TV set.
“They like cartoons and when you put that on, they are calm.”
The babies have become celebrities in their home country of Mali, with many keen to see the miracle babies with their own eyes.
The babies broke the Guinness World Record for the most children delivered in a single birth to survive.
They were delivered via Caesarean section at 30 weeks in May 2021, and remained in Casablanca for specialist care for the wee lads and lasses.
The four boys named Mohammed VI, Oumar, Elhadji and Bah; and the five girls named Kadidia, Fatouma, Hawa, Adama and Oumou weighed a miniscule 500g to 1kg at birth.
Medical director of the birth clinic where the nontuplets were born, Prof Youssef Alaoui, said the risk of health problems for the babies were heightened due to premature birth.
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?”
Source: the-sun
