Halima Cissé and her husband, Abdelkader Arby, greeted their nine babies, five girls and four boys, who were also entered into the Guinness Book of Records on May 4, 2021 and recently celebrated their first birthday.
The babies were born in the 30th week of pregnancy, and although they are still under hospital observation, their father says they are in excellent health.
The girls, Fatouma, Adama, Kadidia, Hawa, and Oumou, and their brothers, Oumar, Bah, Mohammed VI, and Elhadji, feel great and develop and get stronger day by day.
“They’re all climbing already. There are those who can already sit up and even walk if they cling to something,” said the proud father. She also said her family makes her very happy, but she acknowledged that caring for babies can be tiring at times.
But no matter how tiring parenting is, parents feel lucky. In addition to the nonuplets, they also have a 3-year-old daughter, Souda.
“It’s not easy, but it feels great,” Arby said. Before the nonuplets were born, the mother was transferred to a clinic in Morocco, and Arby stayed in Mali with their daughter, but the family was finally able to be reunited last October.
Doctors originally thought the 26-year-old Halima Cissé was expecting seven babies, but at the Ain Borja Clinic in Casablanca, where the mother was transported before giving birth, they discovered that there were actually nine babies.
“Fortunately, this did not deter us, as we have one of the largest neonatal resuscitation services in Morocco. Our team was ready to receive the children and we were able to handle them in the best conditions,” said Dr. Youssef Alaoui, a doctor at the hospital.
Cissé’s children broke the world record previously held by Nadya Suleman’s eight babies.
“Nine children are extremely rare, and until the birth of Cissé’s children, no case was recorded in which all nine babies survived for more than a few hours,” the Guinness Book of Records shows. The development of the babies will continue to be monitored in the hospital and the family will be ready to celebrate every milestone in the children’s lives.
“Nothing could be better than the first year. We will remember these great moments we are going through,” said the father.