WOMEN'S CENTER - For long years, women in north county had to go elsewhere - mainly to Annapolis or Baltimore - to have their babies delivered, while Baltimore Washington Medical Center waited and waited for permission to open its own obstetrics unit.

The wait finally ended Oct. 2, with the cries of the first baby delivered at the new Robin Elizabeth Pascal Women's Center at BWMC. Hospital officials have projected that the unit's four delivery rooms will handle 900 to 1,000 babies in the first year of operation, and eventually accommodate 1,600 or more a year.

The opening of the women's center, the last part of...