Suffocating while sleeping remains a leading cause of death for Cook County babies, and Black babies are suffering the most, a new report found.

County medical examiners and pediatricians at Rush University Medical Center examined 208 cases where infants died suddenly and unexpectedly in their sleep from 2019 to 2023. Of those babies, 153 were Black, 34 were Hispanic and 19 were white.

When the baby’s cause of death was identified, suffocating was the most common reason, according to the report published Wednesday, the first day of Safe Sleep Awareness Month.

Sudden, unexpected infant deaths happen to infants under the age of 1 and include accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed and unknown causes. Sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, is another common term that means the caus

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