South and West sides have highest rates of infant sleep deaths in Cook County

Infants are dying about once a week on average in Cook County — most frequently on Chicago's South and West sides.That's according to a report from Rush University Medical Center and the Cook County medical examiner's office, which identified 208 sudden and unexpected infant deaths between 2019 and 2023.In October 2025, Rush University Medical in partnership with the Cook County medical examiner's office released the report using data from the Sudden Unexpected Infant Death-Case Registry.U.S. Rep. Danny Davis joined medical professionals and community advocates Friday at the West Austin Child Development Center to raise awareness about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and other sleep-related infant deaths.For years, many of these deaths were categorized as SIDS because the exact cause was unclear, said Dr. Gina Lowell, the study's principal investigator. But a closer examination of the cases revealed a common pattern.“When we looked at our babies, our 208 babies who died here in Cook County from 2019 to 2023, we found that the majority of them were in adult beds or on couches,” Lowell said.Lowell warned during the news conference that those numbers are rising — projecting that there were 52 sleep-related deaths in 2025.The report found sleep-related infant deaths happened most frequently in South and West side communities facing higher levels of poverty, crowded housing, unemployment and educational disparities.“You may not have the bandwidth to remember how to place your baby asleep to save their life when you're already thinking about saving your family's life in so many other ways,” Lowell said.Tamera Fair, CEO of Premier Child Care facilities in the Chicago area, said sometimes “bonding can turn into a crisis in a nanosecond.”"We had a family who was breastfeeding," Fair said. "The mother rolled over on the baby, and that baby died. That was a tragedy for every family here...