The report shows Akayelah was put to bed by her father Phillip Collis about 5:45pm on the night before she died.
He found her not breathing, with the pillow near her head and thick, gel-like baby formula coming out of her mouth when he went to check on her at about 8:15pm.
A paramedic who attended the scene said Mr Collis had told him Akayelah had "somehow gotten the pillow over her head".
However, that was disputed by Mr Collis, who said the pillow was lying horizontally just below the baby's chin.
Simon Stables, a forensic pathologist consulted by Ms McDowell, said the presence of an adult pillow would be dangerous whether it was on Akayelah's head or chest.
Dr Stables said "possible suffocation due to a dangerous sleeping environment" should be added as an underlying cause of death.
"Lying babies to sleep in the first year of life with an adult pillow in the sleeping environment is a hazard that increases the risk of infant death," Ms McDowell said in her report.
The Ministry of Health needed to strengthen its messages around the risks of placing an adult pillow near a sleeping baby, Ms McDowell said.
Akayelah's mother Lucille Neho earlier told the coroner's inquiry the baby was sometimes put to sleep in her cot with her bottle and one or two adult-sized pillows placed on her chest to support her while she fed.
The pillows were usually removed afterwards, she said.
Mrs Neho said she was aware there shouldn't be any pillows in a baby's cot, "but Akayelah had this certain pillowcase she adored, loved."
