Sleep-related infant death takes the lives of 3700 US babies each year, and there has been minimal progress in death rates in the past two decades. Modifiable risk factors (sleep position, location, and soft bedding) have been well known during this time. For years, we have known what increases risk, but have not been able to change sleep behaviors, especially among those at highest risk. A careful look at the magnitude of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) mortality and a comparison of SUID to other major causes of child death help to provide meaningful context. This chapter addresses factors related to the perception of risk from the perspective of clinicians, parents, and the public health community. The lack of media coverage of these deaths likely minimizes the perception of the risk of SUID, which hampers progress in clinician counseling, parental compliance with safe infant sleep advice, and public health responses to SUID. Finding ways to correct this misperception offers the promise to motivate clinicians, parents, and public health systems to better address the true risk of SUID.