Mothers-to-be in west Georgia and east Alabama will welcome their newborns in some sleek new accommodations as new labor and delivery suites come online in the maternity center at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton.

The new suites, which begin service this week, mark the end of the third phase of a multi-phase plan to expand maternity care at the Carrollton hospital. The previous two phases included construction of a new postpartum unit with spacious new rooms for mothers to recover following a delivery and the construction of a new nursery and the facility’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), due to come online later this summer.

This phase of construction expands the number of labor and delivery suites at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton from six to eight and includes a new nurses station for the labor and delivery unit.

The new rooms, built from existing space within the hospital, feature contemporary appointments and design, as well as plenty of space for visitors. Attention has been given to the comfort of loved ones and new mothers alike, with USB chargers built into the walls and furnishings in the room, couches that fold out into beds for partners to room-in comfortably with new mothers, private waiting rooms adjacent to the labor and delivery suites for loved ones to wait during the delivery or to give the mother time to rest, and more. Also, new bathrooms feature spacious, easy-access, ADA-compliant showers.

The first phase of the project — the hospital’s new postpartum unit — opened to patients last year, and the second phase, which included a new nursery and space for the NICU, began service in April. The project is moving in phases within existing space inside Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton, with areas being closed for demolition and renovation as new areas come on line. Upcoming phases will include remodeling of existing labor and delivery suites, renovation of the facility’s surgical services suite for caesarean sections and construction of a second C-section suite.

Residents can get a first-look at the new maternity space during the Hey, Baby! Mom and Baby Fair on Saturday, Aug. 25, at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton. The event will also feature giveaways, door prizes, meet-and-greet with physicians, educational programs, activities for kids and more. Registration for the free event is available at www.tanner.org/heybaby.

In recent years, Tanner has placed an emphasis on expanding its women’s care services, recruiting additional obstetrics and gynecology specialists to its medical staff, offering robotic-assisted surgical care and more.

The health system’s maternity services will continue to expand with a planned renovation of the nursery, postpartum and labor and delivery units at Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica after the facility’s new emergency department and surgical services unit opens this fall.

More information on Tanner’s maternity services and its other women’s care programs is available online at www.TannerWomensCare.org.