Baltimore has spent nearly two decades working to reduce infant deaths, and that effort has led to meaningful progress. But recent increases in sleep-related infant deaths show why public health efforts must continue to listen, adapt and respond. 

The city has recorded 11 sleep-related infant deaths in 2026, matching the total number reported in all of 2025, with months still remaining in the year. Approximately three-quarters of those deaths involved co-sleeping, when a parent or caregiver shares a bed with an infant. 

At a recent news conference, Baltimore leaders emphasized the importance of the ABCDs of safe sleep: Alone, on their Back, in a Crib, and in a smoke-free home.  

But they also emphasized something else: keeping babies safe cannot rest on parents alone. 

“As a father, I know firsthand how important safe sleep is, and I also know that keeping our babies safe cannot be up to parents alone,” Mayor Brandon Scott said. “It takes all of us working together.” 

That idea is at the center of Safe Sleep Is Up to All of Us, a new campaign developed by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) under the B’more for Healthy Babies initiative. 

Since 2009, B’more for Healthy Babies has brought together public health, health care, community organizations, and residents to improve maternal and infant health across Baltimore. Over that time, Baltimore’s infant mortality rate has declined by 35 percent, and sleep-related infant deaths declined by 67 percent between 2009 and 2024. 

CCP has worked alongside B’more for Healthy Babies as a communication partner since the beginning, helping shape strategies and develop messages that connect with Baltimore families. The campaign builds on a lesson CCP has learned through that partnership: public health communication works best when it listens to the people it is meant to reach. 

The new campaign is now rolling out across the city. A Spanish-language version of the video has just been posted, radio spots are planned, and the messaging will be incorporated into B’more for Healthy Babies’ upcoming Rattle & Roll outreach event, where providers receive new tools and resources. 

For Tina Suliman, a senior program officer at CCP who works on the B’more for Healthy Babies initiative, the increase in sleep-related infant deaths is a reminder that the work cannot slow down. 

“This makes it even more urgent to get the word out,” she said. 

The campaign builds on what CCP and B’more for Healthy Babies have heard from families over time. 

Earlier safe sleep campaigns featured powerful stories from Baltimore mothers who had lost babies to sleep-related deaths. Those stories helped communicate the seriousness of the issue. But as the team continued listening, families said they wanted to see more of the people who help care for babies and support parents every day. 

The result was a broader message: safe sleep is not something parents do alone. 

Safe sleep is a responsibility shared by everyone who cares for a baby, from parents and grandparents to relatives, caregivers, and trusted members of the community. 

The campaign also reflects a shift in how the message is framed. Safe sleep recommendations remain the same. But families need more than information about risk. They need communication that recognizes the realities of caring for a baby: the exhaustion, the love, the desire to comfort a child, and the support systems that surround a family. 

At the news conference, Baltimore father Martray Frye made that message personal. 

“The ABCDs do not only apply to their mothers,” he said.  

Frye, who participates in B’more for Healthy Babies programs in the Upton/Druid Heights neighborhood, said the initiative helped him become a more informed and involved father. 

“They have given me the knowledge that I needed to be more informed as a dad, to be more involved as a dad,” he said. 

He also emphasized the importance of consistency. 

“Not a day go by,” he said, “every nap, every night.” 

The message is one that public health leaders say applies to everyone who cares for a baby. 

At the news conference, Baltimore City Health Commissioner Michelle Taylor shared her own experience navigating changing guidance across generations. When her first child was born 20 years ago, she said she had a difficult conversation with her grandmother about safe sleep recommendations because they differed from how her grandmother had raised her own children. 

Taylor chose to follow the newest recommendations, including putting her baby to sleep on its back. Her grandmother did not agree, she said, but she respected her decision. 

That conversation reflects what many families face: changing how babies sleep often requires trust, communication and conversations across generations. 

“We have to make sure that the correct messages are getting out to our communities,” Taylor said. 

The new campaign will continue expanding across Baltimore in the coming months, reaching families through video, radio, provider outreach, and community partners. 

At the news conference, Taylor offered a reminder to everyone who has a role in caring for children. 

“Every baby counts on you,” she said.