A new study says that ad magazines and parenting books show babies sleeping in precarious poses, which are unsafe for them.

More than one-third of the publications, which are targeted towards women aged 20-40 years contain pictures of babies sleeping with a blanket, stuff toys or in unsafe positions and with parents.

The recommended method of sleeping, by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), for the infants says that they should be made to sleep on their backs and without any hazardous things like pillows, blankets and stuff toys around them. They should also be put separately in a cot without an adult sharing the same bed.

"It's a subliminal message. If a mom sees that [unsafe ad], she may think it's OK to sleep her baby in that particular position," said Brandi Joyner, the lead author of the study and a Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) researcher and health educator at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D. C.

Advertisers defend themselves by saying that they are just trying to promote their products in pleasing poses with the babies and it is the responsibility of the parents to determine their babies' safety.

SIDS is still the most prominent cause of death in children who are anywhere between one month and one year old.

Parents need to be educated on safe and non-hazardous sleeping practices which can reduce infant deaths caused due to SIDS. When AAP first published safe infant sleeping guidelines in 1992 the SIDS rate dropped over 50 percent as observed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.