The Lakeshore General Hospital has opened a new $2.1-million birthing centre that will allow new mothers to labour and deliver in their own private room and then move across the hall to a private postpartum room large enough to accommodate family members for a 36- to 48-hour stay.

The state-of-the-art birthing centre was officially opened Monday with the unveiling of a plaque recognizing Nick Di Tomaso, the longtime hospital fundraiser for whom the centre is named as per request of the Eric T. Webster Foundation, which made a $1.2-million donation for the hospital renovation.

The centre, which enhances obstetric care in the West Island, is now operational.

Di Tomaso told the close to 30 people gathered Monday morning to tour the new centre, including several West Island mayors and members of the Lakeshore General Hospital Foundation, that he felt both “humble and proud” of the achievement.

“What could be more joyful than bringing new babies into the world,” Di Tomaso said.

The new centre on the hospital’s second floor will be able to accommodate up to 2,400 new babies a year, a significant increase from the 1,700 babies born at the hospital last year.

Almost on cue, an expectant father loaded down with bags and pushing his wife in a wheelchair arrived and was greeted by a chorus of cheers and well wishes from the assembled crowd. The couple were checking into one of centre’s 10 private labour and delivery rooms.

The rooms are outfitted with a specialized bed for delivery, a private bathroom and shower, heart monitors for mother and baby, specialized directional lighting, resuscitation equipment, oxygen and a whole host of other medical supplies concealed in cabinets. There’s also an oversized digital clock on the wall to time the baby’s birth to the second.

With the average first-time labour and delivery 14 hours in length, Yvonne Vasilie, the hospital’s chief of obstetrics and gynecology and Monday’s tour guide, said she was pleased how the birthing centre has integrated the latest medical equipment into a homey and comfortable setting.

She pointed to the hardwood floors, a chair that turns into a bed and the cheerful shades of blue, green and yellow throughout the centre. There’s a whirlpool room, she noted, and postpartum rooms where new mothers who deliver vaginally will stay an average of 36 to 48 hours, are twice the size of the old rooms.

Greg Bagshaw, a Pierrefonds father, said the Lakeshore hospital’s maternity ward “has always been super” in his estimation. He and his wife, Tanya Forward, have had six children at the hospital, he said.

Still as he walked his 6-hour-old daughter (who may be named Audrey) up and down the main hallway in the unit while his wife slept, he said, he had to admit the new birthing centre was even more comfortable.