ANCHORAGE - Providence Hospital recently unveiled the first phase of its new maternity center. The facility was built to meet the needs of a growing population which according to the Alaska Department of labor, is projected to grow almost 30% by 2035.

The new mother-baby unit is the first phase of a 150 million dollar project. The final 3 will be completed fall of 2014. The project comes after growing need for better facilities.

"You know old buildings age and space gets limited, so part of our favorite parts of this project are being able to expand some of these spaces that are most important to our moms and families" said Cathy Heckenlively, a spokesperson for the new facility.

The unit is equipped with 31 state of the art suites that are more spacious and include private bathrooms, a baby bathing station, cable TV, comfortable couches that convert into beds and scenic views.

Heckenlively says her favorite part was "Involving the families, because its the mission of Providence to minister to the community and I think that we would have missed a lot of great input had we not included them."

It's not just the hospital getting involved it's also the community, one special donation were the hand-crafted toys donated by John Schmidel.

"He has a heart of gold, behind every toy there is a story that's from his life," said Heckenlively

The mother baby unit will open for new mothers in October, and as they arrive they will find spaces for not only them but there families to gather and visit as they welcome their new bundle of joy.