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image copyrightSaloum Arby
In history, there were only two more cases of the birth of nine children at once, but none of them lived even a few days.
The only nonuplets in the world – nine twins born at the same time – feel great and are preparing to celebrate their first birthday.
All children, along with their mother, 26-year-old Halima Cisse, are still in the residential complex at the Moroccan clinic where they were born.
“Now they are all crawling, and some can sit and even walk if they hold on to something,” the children’s father, Malian military Abdelkader Arbi, who has just returned to Morocco after a six-month break, proudly told the BBC Africa Service. along with a three-year-old daughter who now boasts nine siblings at once.
“Yes, it’s not easy, but it’s so great,” says Abdelkader. “When we look at our children in good health, we forget about fatigue.”
image copyrightSaloum Arby
Abdelkader Arbi, his wife Halima Cisse and three-year-old daughter Suda are happy with this addition to the family
The children of Abdelkader and Halima were included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest group of twins who survived after childbirth.
Before the birth, the Malian authorities sent Halima to a specialized clinic in Morocco, as the birth promised to be difficult, and there are no local specialists of this level in the country. Therefore, women who have more than four fetuses on scans are often offered to have an abortion in countries where it is legal, so as not to endanger the life of the mother and her children later.
However, in the case of Halima, who had seven children at once on ultrasound (two doctors could not examine and “found” them already during childbirth), the state took all the expenses and sent her to a private clinic in Casablanca, the owners of which, after childbirth provided mother and children with specially equipped housing and medical staff.
image copyrightSaloum Arby
Qualified nurses help take care of Halima’s nine children
The children – five girls (Qadidia, Hawa, Fatuma, Adama and Umu) and four boys (Mohammed, Bach, El Hadji and Umar) – were born at 30 weeks by caesarean section, as is usually done in the case of a large the number of twins, and weighed from 500 grams to a kilogram.
According to the father, each child already has its own individual character.
“They are all very different,” Arbi says, “some are very quiet, others make a lot of noise or cry. Some people want to be held in their arms all the time. In general, they are very different from each other, which, of course, perfectly normal.”
Although the children are still in Morocco, they are already very popular in their homeland of Mali.
“Everyone really wants to see the children with their own eyes – relatives, friends, residents of our village, and the whole country,” says Arbi.
