A new $7.5 million nursery is set to open this week at the Grey Nuns Hospital to meet the rising demands for neonatal care.

The specialized nursery will be the first of its kind in Canada, to provide support for fragile newborns and families using the latest technologies.

"The newest technology is to decrease noise, light and disturbance to the infant," said Dr. Abraham Peliowski, director of neonatology at the Grey Nuns Hospital.

The nursery, complete with private rooms for premature and fragile babies, provides central monitoring, optimum soundproofing, infection control enhancements and special lighting to allow parents and caregivers to provide the best environment for each infant as they develop.

"There's no longer going to be things that say visiting hours are going to be from this time to this time," said Gail Cameron, patient care manager at the hospital. "We're seeing so many advances in technology that you have to remember to put the heart back where it belongs and I think family centered care and looking after babies, this way will do it."

New mom to twins, Liz Kalisvaart, is pleased to discover that the new rooms at the nursery offer so much more to families.

"I sometimes joke I should just set up a bed here because it would be a lot easier," she said.

The number of babies delivered at the Grey Nuns Hospital, operated by Covenant Health, has increased by 27% in the last five years.

"We've seen tremendous growth in the need for neonatal care over the past decade," said Greg Hadubiak, Covenant Health senior vice president in a news release Monday. "As we redesigned our space to be able to care for more infants who required a higher level of care, we researched the best approaches across the county and listened very closely to what our caregivers and families had to say.

The $7.5 million is a part of a $17.75 million project to meet the growing demands of the hospital maternity ward which will add six more labour and delivery rooms.

The Caritas Hospitals Foundation in Edmonton contributed $600,000 to the project.

Families will move into the new nursery on January 28th.

With files from CTV's Susan Amerongen