52 empty cribs at Daley Plaza highlight sleep-related infant deaths

There are 52 empty cribs sitting at Daley Plaza right now, each one a heartbreaking symbol of a loss that happened way too soon. In Cook County, an infant dies from a sleep-related cause every single week. Joining me now live to talk more about this, we have Jessica Wilkerson, the Director of Maternal and Reproductive Health with the Chicago Department of Public Health. Thank you so much for joining us. Yes, thank you for having me. When people walk past those 52 empty cribs at Daley Plaza today, the ones that we just saw on screen. What is the reaction that you're hoping to pull out of the community? I think what we're hoping to pull out is conversation. 52 babies dying a year is a lot. And I think community just is not aware of how frequently it happens. So really striking up conversation and being able to provide education to families who live in our communities so they understand what the risks are. Yeah. So let's have that conversation. What are the main safe sleep guidelines and what are the most common misconceptions? Yeah, so the main safe sleep guidelines are alone, on their back, and in a crib. Alone meaning no pillows, no stuffed animals, no additional humans, no pets, no bumpers around the cribs, no blankets, on their back, as well as in a crib. So no adult beds, no baby bouncers, or anything like that. I think a misconception is really that folks feel like maybe this is something that couldn't happen to them. But when you look at the numbers like we are, you know, it happens more often than not. And so being aware again of those really important guidelines are going to help our families as they're making these decisions in the middle of the night when they're tired, when things are stressful. they need to have the information at their ready so that they can make those types of decisions for themselves. Can you explain what the problem is with some of those things that you mentioned? I mean, let's talk about the numbers. More than 90% of these sleep-related deaths involve that soft bedding that you talked about, like the blankets, the pillows. So why are those seemingly cozy items dangerous for a newborn? Yeah, so they actually put the infinite risk for accidental suffocation. So when a newborn is in that crib and let's say a blanket comes across their face. It makes it hard for them to breathe, but they're not strong enough to be able to get that blanket off of their face and remove that hazard. So they may fight and move around and try and get out. And eventually they wear themselves out and that blanket stays over their face and causes that accidental suffocation. The same with pillows. They can become wedged in between the side of a crib, get their face, roll over a little bit and just get in that corner of that pillow. And again, it's that accidental suffocation. They just cannot get themselves out of those positions and being able to move away from those hazards. You also talked about those tired parents. So I want to come back to that. For those parents who are exhausted, it's two in the morning. How hard is it to stick to these guidelines? Yeah, I think, you know, I am a mom. I have two boys and understanding that in the middle of the night when you're desperate for sleep. It is hard, but we want to think about following these guidelines just as we would when we put our infants in a car seat. There are challenges when you're driving and a baby might get fussy and you've got to pull over and take care of the baby. Similar when you're doing this, and it is hard and understandable, but the risk of putting that baby in the bed with you or wrapping that baby with a blanket, we just don't want our families to experience this devastating loss so being able to provide them the education so that they can they understand what those risks are in the middle of the night even when they're in these really challenging moments data shows black infants in Cook County face a dramatically higher risk so how is CDPH reaching the south and the west sides directly yeah i think the most important thing is CDPH can't do this on their own we're not doing this ourselves we have a great network of community organizations across the city who are also focused in on this work and so with their help we are able to look at data from our sewage case registry team understand which zip codes the families are living in where we're seeing some of the highest numbers and we can utilize our community resource um community health worker resource teams we can partner with organizations in those communities but we can also make sure that the ads and the campaign like you're seeing here are being put out in those communities to really highlight this conversation. We're also working with faith-based organizations in these community areas to help us deliver this message. The messaging really has to come from trusted sources for families to be able to believe in the messaging and want to follow through on what information we're giving them. And my last question for you, there's a common belief that SIDS or these sleep deaths that They're completely random mysteries. Can you tell us a little bit more about the data? Absolutely. So from 2019 to 2023, there were 208 deaths in Cook County. 99% of those deaths occurred in an unsafe sleep situation. So in positions, like we talked about, being in an adult bed, we know that 27% of those were actually classified as accidental suffocation. 93% were found with soft bedding. And so those blankets that we talked about or pillows, 84% were sleeping somewhere that is not approved for infant safe sleep. So that could be an adult bed, that could be like one of those infant recliners, it could be on a pillow, and 66% were sharing a bed with another adult or another human being. So all of those things and that data shows that if we can make some of those changes and get those babies alone on their back and in a crib, that we can definitely impact these numbers and drive down the rates that we're seeing here in Chicago and in Cook County. A really tough conversation to have, but certainly an important one. Jessica Wilkerson with the Chicago Department of Public Health. Thank you for joining us today.