Woman Gives Birth To Nine Children, Doctors Say It's A Rare Phenomenon

In one of the rarest phenomena, a Malian woman gave birth to nine children in Morocco.

25-year-old Halima Cisse was flown down to Morocco for specialist care after her pregnancy fascinated and attracted the attention of leaders in her country.

According to ultrasounds conducted in Morocco and Mali, doctors expected Cisse to give birth to seven babies.

However, on Tuesday, May 4, Cisse gave birth to five girls and four boys and joined a small group of mothers of nonuplets. All nine kids were delivered by cesarean section. The mother and her newborns were reported to be in healthy condition.

"The newborns (five girls and four boys) and the mother are all doing well," Mali’s health minister Fanta Siby said in a statement. The mother and children will return home in several weeks' time, the health minister added.

"The medical teams of Mali and Morocco, whose professionalism is at the origin of the happy outcome of this pregnancy," Siby said.

It was the first time the country witnessed such a rare phenomenon, Moroccan health ministry spokesman Rachid Koudhari told Africa’s Khaleej Times.

According to experts, multiple births of this kind can often lead to medical complications, wherein some of the babies may not reach full term.

In a similar incident, a woman in England gave birth to rare twins who were born three weeks apart. That means the woman got pregnant while she was already pregnant.

"Superfetation" is a rare condition in which two fertilized eggs enter into the uterus at different times.

The 39-year-old woman got pregnant for the first time last year. During an ultrasound at 12 weeks of pregnancy, doctors discovered a second baby with a three-week size difference from the first.

"My initial reaction was how had I missed the second twin," Dr. David Walker, an OB-GYN at Royal United Hospital in Bath, told Good Morning America. "And following this [I] was slightly relieved that it was not my mistake but a quite extraordinary pregnancy."

As superfetation is a rare phenomenon, doctors had warned the mother that the younger child could not survive. However, both babies are now well and at home.