SAN DIEGO -- Nine beds will be added as part of an expansion to the University of California, San Diego Medical Center's neonatal intensive care unit to handle a rise in the number prematurely born infants, it was announced Wednesday.

The addition to the existing 40 beds will allow hospital staff to treat about 900 intensive-care infants a year, compared to the current number of 780, according to UCSD.

The $2.6 million project is the first in a series of improvements at the Hillcrest facility, hospital officials said.

Each of the nine private patient areas in the new 1,795-square-foot addition to the unit can accommodate one critical infant. Each area also may be used by up to three babies in stable condition.

More than 3,000 babies are born at UCSD Medical Center each year.

According to UCSD, hospitals are seeing an increasing number of infants being born prematurely, or with complications nationwide.

"One in eight babies across the U.S. is born prematurely," said Dr. Neil Finer, director of the Division of Neonatology at UCSD Medical Center.

"By expanding our services, we can treat more of these fragile infants to help ensure healthy outcomes," he said.

The increase in early births is due to advanced artificial reproductive technologies and shifts in maternal age, according to the hospital.

In 2005, more than 525,000 infants were born prematurely, the highest number ever reported in the United States, according to the March of Dimes.