Nine siblings have set a world record as the largest number of babies to be born together and survive.
And after more than a year in the hospital, the Mali nonuplets finally were deemed well enough to go home this week, the TODAY show reports.
The 19-month-old siblings and their parents, Halima Cissé and Abdelkader Arby, are from the western African country of Mali, but they spent nearly two years in Casablanca, Morocco at a hospital that specializes in high-risk pregnancies and premature babies, according to the report.
When their parents traveled to Morocco before the babies’ birth, they said both they and their doctors had thought they were pregnant with seven babies.
But on May 4, 2021, nine babies arrived by cesarean section at 30 weeks of pregnancy. Each weighed between 1 and 2 pounds, according to People magazine.
Their parents named the five girls and four boys Mohammed VI, Oumar, Elhadji, Bah, Kadidia, Fatouma, Hawa, Adama and Oumou, the report continues.
This week, the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Mali celebrated the family’s arrival home.
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“Welcomed this morning by the Minister of Health and Social Development Diéminatou Sangaré with joy and satisfaction at President Modibo Keïta International Airport,” the ministry said in a statement, translated from French by TODAY.
The ministry also thanked the Moroccan doctors and nurses for their dedicated treatment of the family, all of whom are now healthy and living at home.
Earlier this year, Guinness World Records recognized the nine siblings and their mother as world-record breakers, giving them the title of “most children delivered at a single birth to survive.” The previous record went to U.S. mom Nadya Suleman, or “Octomom,” and her eight children.
Speaking with the BBC in May, the nonuplets’ father, Abdelkader Arby, said he and his wife feel overwhelmed at times, but they are thankful that their children are well.
“It’s not easy, but it’s great,” he said.
