CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) – Cooper Hospital in Camden has cut the ribbon on a new “lactation lounge.”

The lounge, which features rocking chairs and breast pumps, is a part of Cooper’s Employee Lactation Support program.

Robin Harvey, director of patient care services (below right), says the hospital simply wants to help babies get off to a healthy start.

“One way we can do that here for our own employees is to have breastfeeding facilities available for the comfort of moms who return to work and want to breastfeed their babies,” she said today.

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(Doug Allen, Cooper Hospital's senior VP of human resources, cutting the ribbon today. Credit: Paul Kurtz)

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Studies have shown that breast-fed babies tend to develop higher IQs and straighter teeth, and are more likely to avoid obesity and asthma.

The lounge has a coded door entry to ensure employees’ privacy, two curtained pumping stations with electric pumps, rocking chairs with foot rests, an information station with health and parenting brochures, and an ambient-noise fountain “to create a peaceful, private environment.”

Harvey says the lounge got rave reviews from those who tested it out.

“Several employees asked, just based on having some Internal buzz, to use it — to the point of where we had a good 10 to 12 employees using the lactation lounge prior to going public.”

Reported by Paul Kurtz, KYW Newsradio 1060