BAR HARBOR – Heard over the elegant live music, clinking of glasses and party chatter Thursday night, the sound of a baby playing brought home the reason the large crowd was celebrating the opening of the new obstetrics wing at Mount Desert Island Hospital.

Patricia Berry of Bar Harbor, who said she is expecting to give birth next week, looked around at the fresh paint, bright woodwork and light-filled rooms as she cared for her toddler, Maggie. “This is very nice,” she said. “We used to live in Manchester, New Hampshire. They have a couple very good hospitals, too, but I’m just as excited at having the baby here. I think it’s the personal attention and the community and the skilled staff.”

The new wing is the first installment of the hospital’s plan to update and consolidate all the inpatient units onto the second floor. More than $3 million of the hospital’s $3.5 million fundraising campaign has been raised through community gifts, officials said.

The natty new wing will serve the estimated 100 babies who are born in the hospital each year, according to hospital administrators.

Nurses, doctors, hospital staff and curious parents-to-be checked out the new rooms of the obstetrics unit. A large, state-of-the-art whirlpool bath for labor and an airy post-partum room with a double bed for families were of particular interest to the crowd.

“I think it’s great,” Dr. Mary Dudzik, chief of obstetrics, said. “We certainly are really happy about the nicer features like the built-in labor tub and the larger rooms, each with their own bathrooms.”

Dudzik emphasized that the new equipment and space are nice, but the unit’s true strength is found in its dedicated staff of nurses. “They are so kind and compassionate and really so good at what they do,” she said. “That’s one thing that won’t change.”

The obstetrics staff will move from its old digs during the first two weeks of August, staff said. One improvement they’re looking forward to is the up-to-date security system for newborn babies. “It’s really important,” maternity nurse Ellen DaCorte said. “The babies will all be banded and when a baby gets close enough to a sensor on the doors, alarms would go off. It’s very, very secure.”

Patient safety, privacy and comfort were all considered as the wing was built, hospital president and CEO Art Blank said.

“We’re very excited about this,” he said of the new wing. “It’s exceeded all our expectations and it’s a great investment for the community.”