Mother-infant co-sleeping: understanding the debate and maximizing infant safety.

Mother-infant co-sleeping is debated fervently in the research literature. While studies abound, there is no precise answer to this conundrum, and parents continue to ask nurses for their best opinions about the safety of co-sleeping. The puzzling results of these studies have occurred partly because of: (1) retrospective study designs, (2) lack of control over covariables, (3) misclassification of infant deaths, and (4) unknown prevalence of co-sleeping practices. This article describes the salient issues nurses need to understand in the mother-infant co-sleeping debate, and suggests ways that nurses can help parents to modify risk factors and safety measures if they desire co-sleeping.