Very soon, perhaps as early as next week, a bouncing baby will enter the world with the customary wail and a never-to-be-repeated distinction. He or she will be the first baby born in the spacious labor and delivery unit in West Georgia Health’s new South Tower.

That’s gonna be one lucky baby. Or more correctly, one fortunate family.

The 10 large labor, delivery and recovery suites - barring complications, it all happens in one place, folks - include refrigerators and homelike furniture, even sleeping accommodations for family members. There’s also a family lounge with Wi-Fi and a kitchenette.

Did I mention the flat-screen TVs?

Chances are the first parents will be so enchanted with their newborn they may barely notice the improved environment.

Then again, the dad-to-be may feel so at home and tuned in to Sports Center that he says, “Hold on a minute,” when the mom-to-be says, “I need to push.”

No problem. The equally well-appointed new intensive-care unit is just one floor down.

I expect you’ve heard by now that the local hospital’s long-awaited, carefully planned South Tower is an impressive place. During recent tours, I stood and watched about a dozen first-time visitors enter the dramatic, two-story lobby. All had the same reaction: their jaws dropped, their eyes widened and they said, “Wow!” Or something close to it.

The rest of the four-story structure is equally inspiring.

Pick a superlative - first class, world class, stunning, state-of-the-art, superior - and it fits.

Did I mention the Lamar Dodd paintings?

And the abundance of really big windows letting in glorious natural light?

And the real coffee shop?

I don’t mean to gush. The welcoming environment is wonderful, but not the main point of the South Tower. It’s intended to provide better care, to enable health-care workers to do a better job at things that matter very much - like taking care of your heart, your medical emergency, your serious illness.

I’m no health-care expert, but when it comes to hospitals, I’m an experienced consumer. Four generations of my family have been treated at West Georgia Health in recent years. Three generations have been to the emergency department this year alone. Everyone made it out alive - and received good care.

But there’s no doubt the new facilities would have made the experience more efficient, more comfortable and more conducive to healing.

I will not miss the cramped registration area; the windowless, sofa-less ICU; the cardiac unit with the nurses station way down the hall; the dreary waiting rooms with stiff; straight-backed chairs, and not much else.

I will not volunteer to try out the new emergency department, but I am glad it has private treatment/exam rooms with doors, not curtains, direct access to the operating room and things we hope never to need but can’t afford to be without - like isolation rooms and decontamination areas.

I had the good fortune to tour the South Tower with folks who will be frequent visitors, often arriving with sirens blaring and lights flashing. The hospital hosted a preview for area ambulance crews and EMTs, sheriff’s deputies and police officers, firefighters and paramedics. It was an eye-opening pleasure to see the place through their eyes. Safe to say they liked what they saw.

One lanky EMT spoke for many when he said, “This is going to be so much better.”

Very soon, as early as next week, the first ambulance will bring the first patient to the new ED; the first weary relative will buy the first cup of real coffee in the new coffee shop; the first ICU and cardiac patients will be watched over in a massively improved setting - and their relatives will have a comfortable place to sit down.

Nothing can take the trauma out of trauma or the discomfort and uncertainty out of being sick.

But the South Tower is a giant step toward a therapeutic environment that reduces stress, enhances comfort and provides the space and lifesaving technology necessary for exceptional care.

Did I mention that it opens Tuesday?