At 3.35am on Wednesday, Charles Thomas Tink became the first baby to be born at the state-of-the-art facility, part of the $91.3 million stage one and two redevelopment of the hospital.

Babies, their mothers and staff moved into the unit on Tuesday and were settled well before Dubbo couple Greg Tink, 35, and his wife Rebecca Bruington-Tink, 28, called to say their baby was on the way.

The new parents of 3.91-kilogram “Charlie” were beaming on Wednesday afternoon along with unit manager Jayne Lawrence.

“We’re excited that we’ve got our first baby and the timing was awesome in that it allowed us to get settled and sorted,” the manager said.

Mr Tink said the unit was “as good or better” than what was offered by private hospitals.

“We’d like to thank the midwives especially,” he said.

“They worked a full day setting up the unit and then that evening when we called them they came in straightaway.”

The couple will keep the story of Charlie’s history-making birth in Thursday’s edition of the Daily Liberal for him to read one day.

By mid-afternoon on Wednesday five babies had been born at the unit.

Ms Lawrence expects it will be where 1300 babies are welcomed into the world each year.

The unit sits within the hospital’s new clinical services building that will be both a birthing and surgery hub in the western region.