One in 10: How Five Days Prepared Travis Swaggerty for His Most Important Role

On Sept. 12, as Travis Swaggerty’s 2022 baseball campaign winds to a close in the waning weeks of both the Triple-A and major league schedules, his mind will instead be flurried with images of polka dots and mouse ears.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than one in every 10 infants are born prematurely each year – an estimated total of 15 million. For Travis and his wife, Peyton, their daughter is celebrating her first birthday following the baseball season with a Minnie Mouse-themed party for the ages.

On Sept. 12, 2021, Sutton Hollie Swaggerty was born six weeks early at 4 pounds, 14 ounces. Since, she’s grown to see her dad come back from a season-ending injury in 2021 to making his major league debut at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on June 7, 2022.

“I just can’t believe that we’re already planning [Sutton’s] first birthday,” Peyton said. “I feel like we have gone through a lot this past year, and I want it to be big. Travis keeps telling me she won’t remember it – I don’t care. I just want to celebrate.”

Brave Beginnings, previously named the Will Rogers Institute Neonatal Equipment Grant Program, is a subset of the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation that helps provide hospitals nationwide with newborn intensive care unit (NICU) equipment vital to caring for preterm newborns. Preterm is defined as infants born before the 37-week mark of pregnancy is completed.

According to the Brave Beginnings website, the program distributes an estimated $1 million per year in grants to hospitals across the country to purchase ventilators, sonic equipment and other essential equipment for development and survival.

“It’s massive to see so much care going into NICUs across the United States,” Travis said. “To have things like ventilator shortages, that’s scary. There are so many premature babies that need help and need the care, it’s absolutely essential for them to have that.”

At 10:30 PM on Sept. 11, over a month from her due date, Peyton’s water broke at their home in Mississippi. With her mom out of town and her father reassuring that everything was fine, she was adamant on going to the hospital.

Following an emergency caesarean section in the early hours of the following morning, Sutton was born.

“They put her straight into a travel incubator – a machine that can often come from the money Brave Beginnings donates – and Travis went with her to a different hospital about 20 minutes away,” Peyton said. “Neither Travis or I got to hold her, I just got to see them wheeling her off and putting her in an ambulance.”

Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, a beneficiary of Brave Beginnings as recently as 2020, opened Riley Maternity Tower in late 2021. The addition includes 45 NICU private rooms and four sets of NICU twin rooms, in addition to the 60 NICU beds that previously existed at Riley Hospital.

The proximity of the private NICU rooms to the new labor and delivery unit now allows for postpartum mothers to stay close to their babies while providing the care Hoosiers have come to expect from Riley. As of March 2022, over 2,000 babies have been birthed in the Riley Maternity Tower.

For the Swaggerty family and others across the country spending days to weeks in the NICU – with length of stays relating to preterm date and diagnosis – having beds available for their newborns is step one in overcoming a number of trials through the first days of parenting.

“During this whole thing, every bed was full, and we just got lucky that she didn’t go out of state,” Peyton said. “Thanks to places like Brave Beginnings there are more machines because if not, we would have had to drive an hour and a half to visit her or have her there. We got lucky and there was one bed left at the hospital in Mississippi.”

Throughout the five days that Sutton was in the NICU, only one parent was allowed to stay with her. While Peyton was recovering from her emergency C-section with visits to her newborn daughter during the days, Travis’ new “Girl Dad” title took on new meaning around the clock.

“Being there for five days, I got some actual experience changing diapers, feeding her and learning to take care of her before we went home, which was a blessing in disguise for me,” Travis said. “I wouldn’t say it was scary because we had such good care, but it was hard – it was hard to see our child like that, being in a box with feeding tubes and breathing tubes, it’s hard to see your child like that.”

For Peyton, the importance of care from both the doctors and nurses in Mississippi extended beyond the care of Sutton. They served as a support system both parents.

“Our nurses were amazing, they are definitely underrated,” Peyton said. “Each night they came in, they taught Travis how to change diapers, how to feed her. Each day the doctors came in to update us, they just made us feel better. They taught Travis a lot, in that week that she was there he learned so much. Since I was still recovering from a C-section at a different hospital, they really stepped up and helped motivate him to know that he was doing a great job. I’m really thankful for that because I couldn’t be there.”

In 2020, Riley Children’s Foundation received a grant from Brave Beginnings that allowed for the addition of Sonicu equipment in Riley Hospital’s NICU. Often, the people and machines in the NICU expose infants to excessive noise levels when quiet environments can aid in the development of their minds and bodies. In hospitals across the country, Sonicu has taken over sound monitoring to determine when a noise level is too high.

In a case study at Loma Linda (Calif.) University Health using Sonicu equipment in the NICU, sound monitor light indicators show parents and hospital staff when the noise level is too loud, resulting in a volume that is noticeably quieter than before.

“I can’t even describe how scary it is being in the NICU and seeing all the machines, but when you get to bring them home it’s the best feeling ever,” Peyton said.

While the machines and technology at doctors’ fingertips are vital to developing preemies with a low birth weight – below 5 pounds, 8 ounces, with the average, full-term newborn weighing about 8 pounds – human care and interaction is key not only for the babies, but parents as well.

Throughout Travis’ stay in the NICU with Sutton, he learned firsthand from professionals how to care for his daughter. So, when asked what advice he would give to parents going through that harrowing experience, being present was the overarching theme.

“Don’t take anything for granted because anything can happen and you don’t want to see your child go through something like that,” Travis said. “While you’re in there, pay attention to what’s going on and learn how to take care of your child when they’re going through something like that, being so small and so young and not being able to do anything.”

As Sutton’s first birthday approaches, Travis and Peyton are reflecting on their experience and the work of Brave Beginnings with a continued mentality of not taking anything for granted. Following a battle with thyroid cancer in 2018, the Swaggerty’s pushed their charitable efforts to healthcare for those facing a similar fight.

When they became aware of Brave Beginnings’ efforts, striving to help was a no-brainer.

“So now we’re like, what can we do to get more beds for babies?” Peyton said. “[Sutton] was the biggest baby in the NICU and she was four pounds. The smallest baby I think was one pound, two ounces. It’s just very eye opening having a baby that small and seeing everything that they go through.”

“Having Sutton go to the NICU, obviously it’s very important to us and our lives. She is the most important thing in our lives,” Travis said. “To be able to help other children in need is very important to us, and we want to start doing that.”

In support of Travis, Peyton and Sutton’s journey over the past year – a good amount of which has taken place in Indianapolis in Travis’ first full professional baseball season since 2019 – Indianapolis Indians Charities has announced that it will donate $1,000 to Riley Children’s Foundation in support of some of the top NICU care in the state of Indiana.

And in giving back to a community they have called home all summer, Travis and Peyton have matched IIC’s donation.

“As Indiana’s only ranked comprehensive children’s hospital, Riley is one of the best places for the care of newborns needing intensive care,” Alane Helmer, assistant vice president of corporate and foundation giving at Riley Children’s Foundation, said. “The addition of our Riley Maternity Tower allows families to be closer together in those critical days right after birth. We appreciate this gift from our longtime partner, the Indianapolis Indians, as it shows their commitment to the tiniest of Hoosiers.”

The remainder of the season holds some uncertainty for the Swaggerty family – Travis, a current staple in the Indianapolis lineup each day, Pittsburgh’s No. 11 prospect by MLB Pipeline and the organization’s first-round draft pick in 2018, is regarded as a core piece to the big-league team’s future. His season could end in Triple-A, or he could be roaming the outfield at PNC Park again before the close of 2022.

Amongst all that uncertainty, one thing remains the same: Travis’ family will be there cheering him on either from the ballpark or home, with Sutton (hopefully) staying awake for all the biggest moments.

“God has a plan, and [Travis’ debut] was so much better with her; her being in all the pictures and her getting to witness it,” Peyton said. “She sleeps during all the games, but she did not sleep. She was awake for his first MLB hit. That’s so memorable and it’s just been so much better. We’re so blessed that she’s here and healthy.”