Beacon Health System broke ground on the new home for Memorial Children's Hospital on Thursday. It is expected to open in 2017.

Beacon is investing $50 million in the project.

The new hospital will include neonatology, pediatric hematology/oncology, pulmonology, infectious disease, sleep medicine, behavioral and developmental pediatrics, cardiology, neurology, clinical psychology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, and pediatrics hospitalists and intensivists.

Donors contributed $10 million to the project.

The 100,000 square-foot expansion will include the nation's first couplet care rooms, which allow mothers and babies to stay together as early as 22-weeks gestation, according to Beacon.

Groundbreaking was held September 17.