WATERVILLE — After years of planning and months of construction to existing space, Mid-Maine Medical Center officially will relocate its obstetrics and pediatric units and the prenatal clinic next month from MMMC’s Seton Unit on Chase Avenue to the Thayer Unit on North Street in Waterville. The move is scheduled to be complete May 19.

This relocation will mark the achievement of an 18-year-old goal, dating back to the 1975 merger of the Thayer and Elizebeth Ann Seton hospitals. The move also formalizes the consolidation of behavioral and rehabilitative services under one roof at Seton. Primary services at the Chase Avenue site will focus on psychiatric care, adult and adolescent substance abuse programs, medical rehabilitation, occupational/physical therapy and workplace health services.

Before the relocation is complete, MMMC will hold a grand relocation celebration from noon to 5 p.m. at the Thayer Unit. This community open house will give the public an opportunity to tour the new units, meet the medical center staff and receive important information about prenatal and child health care.

Some of the highlights of the event will include a teddy bear clinic, free gifts for the kids, free refreshments and an all-day visit by a huge purple dinosaur.

The prenatal clinic will be moved May 18 to its new facility on the ground floor at Thayer. Obstetrics and pediatrics are scheduled to move May 19.

The new maternity care unit will house an expanded nursery for newborn care, four labor/delivery rooms, 12 postpartum rooms and, new to MMMC, a whirlpool spa for laboring mothers. Also enhancing obstetric services will be the addition of a new obstetrics operating room, located right on the unit.

The new home for the pediatric unit will be on Thayer’s second floor. Housing pediatric services at the same unit that all acute services are available enables pediatric patients to remain with other children throughout their hospital stay, which provides a more conducive environment for recovery.

For more information, contact Monica Charette at 872-4491.