Researchers warn parents of dangers of sleeping with infants on sofa

Researchers are warning parents that snuggling on the sofa with their &to=http://english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/96/383/15416_newborn.html' target=_blank>newborn can be deadly, revealing Wednesday the number of infants dying this way has risen dramatically.

Overall, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome has dropped in Britain over the past 20 years and a national campaign has made parents more aware of risk factors, according to infant health professor Peter Fleming of the Royal Hospital for Children in Bristol in a paper published online in The Lancet medical journal.

But researchers reported a fourfold spike in the final years of the two-decade study in the numbers of babies who died while sleeping on a sofa or in an armchair with their parents.

"Although the reasons for the rise in deaths when a parents sleeps with their infant on a sofa are unclear, we strongly recommend that parents avoid this sleeping environment," Fleming said in a statement.