Woman In Morocco Gives Birth to Nine Babies, Sets World Record

The Minister of Health and the Moroccan clinic reports that a Malian woman in Morocco has given birth to nine babies at once even though she was only expecting seven. Nine babies is called nonuplets.

It is the first time on record that a woman has given birth to nine surviving babies at once.

NBC News reports that the Guinness Book of World Records said that its current record for most living births at once is eight, and that it is verifying the Morocco birth. The current holder of the Guinness record is American Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to eight premature but otherwise healthy children in 2009.

The five girls and four boys, and their mother, “are all doing well,” Mali’s health minister said in a statement.

Health officials in Mali announced that the mother, 25-year-old Halima Cisse, gave birth to the babies by cesarean section on Tuesday (5/4) in Morocco after being sent there for special care.

Malian doctors, under government orders, sent her to Morocco for the births because hospitals in Mali, one of the world's poorest countries, are ill-equipped to provide adequate care for this exceptional multiple pregnancy.

Cisse gave birth prematurely at 30 weeks.