The occurrence of nine babies being born together is exceptionally rare. There have been only two recorded instances of this phenomenon so far: one in Australia in 1971 and another in Malaysia in 1999. In those cases, all the babies died within days.
The only successful case, recorded by Guinness World Record title for the most children delivered at a single birth to survive, is that of a 25-year-old Malian woman, Halima Cissé, who gave birth to nine babies – two more than doctors had detected during scans.
When a woman wants to have a baby, there are different ways to help make it happen.
Sometimes, doctors can give her special medicines that make her body release more than one egg. These eggs can be fertilized by a man’s sperm to create embryos.
High-order multiple pregnancies (such as nine babies) are extraordinarily rare and are typically associated with fertility treatments, as natural pregnancies of this magnitude are not common and pose significant health risks to both the mother and the babies.
Professor Michael Chapman, an expert in obstetrics and gynaecology at UNSW, expressed amazement at the natural conception of the woman’s children without the use of IVF.
Identical twins occur when a fertilized egg splits into two during early pregnancy, while non-identical twins result from the release and fertilization of two separate eggs in a single cycle.
According to Professor Chapman, “It’s most likely that she’s produced multiple eggs, but in addition to that it is also likely … that she’s got some identicals in there,” he said.
“To produce nine is remarkable, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of nine before. “I’ve heard of octuplets before, although they were the result of fertility treatment.”
In a natural menstrual cycle, a woman typically releases one egg, which can be fertilized by a sperm. This process, known as ovulation, occurs once per menstrual cycle.
While there are rare cases where a woman’s ovaries release more than one egg (resulting in twins, triplets, or other multiples), the release of nine eggs in a single cycle, leading to a natural conception of nine babies, is not supported by biological evidence.
In the case of trying to have nine babies, a fertility treatment like in vitro fertilization (IVF) might be used. IVF involves fertilizing eggs outside the body and then transferring the embryos into the uterus. During this process, more than one embryo can be transferred, leading to the possibility of multiple pregnancies.
Simply put, In IVF, eggs and sperm are combined outside the woman’s body in a lab dish. Then, one or more of these embryos are placed back into the woman’s womb so they can grow into babies.
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However, having so many embryos can be risky for the woman and the babies. Carrying and delivering multiple babies can lead to complications. Doctors closely watch the woman’s health and the babies’ development during pregnancy.
David Ellwood, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and dean of medicine at Griffith University, said there were a number of risks associated with multiple births.
But he said pregnancies involving more than five children were exceptionally rare.
“I’m an obstetrician with nearly 40 years of experience and I’ve been involved in two pregnancies with quadruplets over 40 years,” he said.
Sometimes, if there are too many embryos and it’s dangerous for the woman or the babies, doctors might reduce the number by a procedure called selective reduction. This helps increase the chances of a safe and healthy pregnancy.
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