Rabat (AFP)
The young Malian who gave birth to nine babies "is doing well" but her premature newborns will remain in an intensive care unit for "two to three months" because of their low weight, we learned from the clinic on Wednesday private Moroccan woman who assisted her.
This kind of birth "is very rare, it's exceptional," said Professor Youssef Alaoui, medical director of the Ain Borja clinic in Casablanca, without being able to confirm that this was a world record.
The babies will remain "under surveillance for two to three months until they have reached a mature weight," the clinic official said.
The multiple birth by cesarean section of the nine babies - five girls and four boys weighing 500 grams to one kilogram - was announced Tuesday in a statement from the Malian Ministry of Health.
The medically verified world record dates back to 2009, when American Nadya Suleman - since nicknamed "Octomum" - gave birth to eight children at the age of 33.
Halima Cissé was taken care of in Bamako and then transferred to Morocco on March 30 to be "better followed" because of the risks associated with a pregnancy which "is out of the ordinary", according to the Malian press release.
She was "at 25 weeks when she was admitted (...), the medical staff intervened to prolong the pregnancy with daily monitoring" up to 30 weeks, said Mr. Alaoui.
When she had contractions on Tuesday, a medical team made up of ten doctors assisted by 25 paramedical employees was mobilized.
Malian Minister of Health Fanta Siby praised the "professionalism" of "medical teams from Mali and Morocco".
© 2021 AFP