To say Halima Cisse has her hands full is a bit of an understatement. The family said they go through 100 diapers and six liters of milk in a day. And the couple already has a daughter.
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"I feel very happy ... It's a beautiful gift," she told ABC News.
Her husband, Abdelkader Arby, shares that sentiment, calling the four boys and five girls a "gift from God."
But growing up as an only child, Cisse said she's always wanted a big family, surprise or not.
The 26-year-old mom lives in Mali. After a visit to her OB-GYN, she was told she was pregnant with seven and flew to Morocco for medical intervention.
At 30 weeks pregnant, she gave birth to nine children -- two more than expected -- by C-section.
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Mom, who thought she was pregnant with 7 babies, gives birth to 9
Professor Youssef Alaqui, the director of the private clinic of Ain Borja in Casablanca, said during the birth, the nine babies and Cisse were in danger.
The smallest child weighed just over one pound, and Cisse underwent emergency surgery for internal bleeding.
Three months later, the nonuplets are all alive and thriving, being cared for in a neonatal unit in the Moroccan hospital.
Doctors said they expect the couple will be able to take their children home in two months, and Arby said they're anticipating what life will be like.
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"We are focusing on our babies' being well," he said.
Multiple births are rare -- in the US, 87.7 per 100,000 live births were of triplets or more, according to 2019 data from the CDC.
The record for the most children delivered at a single birth to survive belongs to Nadya Suleman, who in 2009 gave birth to six boys and two girls in California, according to the Guinness World Records. The babies, conceived using in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, were delivered by C-section.
Cisse breaks the record for most babies delivered after a natural conception.