Our achievements

Then and now

In the 1980s, around 2,000 babies between the age of one week and two years died unexpectedly, 90% of them before the age of eight months. In about 1,500 of these cases, no cause of death was found following a post mortem.

This equated to a death rate of approximately 2.35 per 1,000 live births, often described as a “cot death epidemic” in the media.

Through decades of cutting-edge research, developing life-saving safer sleep advice, the rate of babies dying suddenly and unexpectedly has greatly reduced to 0.28 per 1,000 live births. Over 30,000 babies lives have been saved.

How we got there

Thousands of families were profoundly affected by the unexplained death of a baby, not just in the UK but in many other countries. The Lullaby Trust recognised that raising funds for research to unlock the mystery of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), which was also known as cot death, was vital. Since then, the charity has invested over £12 million into research, with the help of our donors, fundraisers and supporters.

We have funded a wide variety of research projects, which have informed our understanding of sudden infant death, and allowed us to give advice on safer sleep to families based on scientific evidence.

One of the most important pieces of advice was placing a baby on their back to sleep rather than on their front. This in turn led to a remarkable drop in the number of babies dying suddenly and unexpectedly and greatly reduced the rate of unexplained infant deaths over time.

We are proud that The Lullaby Trust has played a major role in reducing SIDS in this country and believe our commitment to funding research has been instrumental in decreasing the number of deaths. But there is much more to be done.