Obianuju Anthonia: Expert gives insights on feat of birthing nonuplets

By Jimmy

A Nigerian woman has welcomed nonuplets (9 babies) after 25 years of marriage with no children of her own.

Reports making the round on social media rounds on social media revealed that the woman, known as Obianuju Anthonia Ibeanu, had been married for over two decades without having any children.

Fortunately for her, the God of Babies blessed her with 9 children to compensate for all the years she had remained childless.

Photos making the rounds on social media show Mrs. Ibeanu sitting at the edge of the bed with her nine babies.

Nonuplets are extremely rare. The first recorded case of nine babies at once was on June 13, 1971, when an Australian woman gave birth to five boys and four girls (two boys were stillborn). The remaining seven infants died within a week.

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Halima Cissé, a woman from Mali, was the first person to give birth to nonuplets where all survived. On May 4, 2021, the then 25-year-old Cissé gave birth to nine babies — five girls and four boys — named Mohammed VI, Oumar, Elhadji, Bah, Kadidia, Fatouma, Hawa, Adama and Oumou. Until the arrival of the Cissé children, no cases had been recorded of nine babies from a single birth surviving for more than a few hours. The world-famous Malian nonuplets celebrated their first birthday on May 4, 2022.

Alaoui, the director of the private clinic in Morocco where Cissé gave birth, shared the story of the remarkable birth and survival of all nine babies in an email interview with TODAY Parents. And thanks to him, we can get an insight as to what it looks like to have nine babies at once, as well as their chances of survival.

According to him, he and his team at the Casablanca Ain Borja Clinic had seen all sorts of complicated medical situations, but the birth of nonuplets was a first.

From the time of Cisse’s arrival, Alaoui and his team were able to extend her pregnancy five weeks before she delivered at 30 weeks. A typical pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, but higher-order multiples generally are born sooner and have complicated medical needs. In total, 10 doctors and 25 paramedics cared for the patient from her arrival until delivery.

“We were a team of three resuscitators, three anesthesiologists, two gynecologists, three neonatologists, (and a) catheterizer, not to mention the midwives and our extraordinary team of midwives and neonatal paramedics without whom nothing would have been possible,” he said. “Ms. Cissé was 25 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to our clinic and our team was able to extend her pregnancy up to 30 weeks.”

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But at delivery — expecting seven babies — doctors got a real shock.

“The glimpse we got from the ultrasound made it seem like there were only seven, so you can imagine our surprise when we discovered nine of them during the birth,” Alaoui said. “Luckily this didn’t faze us, since we have one of the largest neonatal resuscitation services in Morocco. Our teams were ready to welcome these children into the world and able to treat them in the best conditions.”

Alaoui said that while shocking, it was just another day at the office for his team of medical professionals.

Obianuju Anthonia becomes the second person in the world to have all of her nine babies survive at birth. Congratulations to her, and best wishes from Ikejabird.