MIDIRS Literature Search packs
Our Maternity and Infant Care database is a vast resource, currently consisting of over 300,000 records. Search Packs make it easy to find the content you need.
What are Search Packs?
MIDIRS Search Packs are pre-prepared database searches created by our librarians to make researching specific topics easier than ever.
Search Packs are ideal for discovering new areas of research: our brochure can introduce you to topics you may not have encountered before. They are especially popular with student midwives, supporting essay writing by compiling relevant research into a single document. Midwives also use Search Packs to keep up to date with the latest evidence in their areas of interest, helping to strengthen clinical practice and support ongoing professional development.
If you want to deepen your knowledge in a specific field of midwifery, Search Packs are the best place to start.
How are Search Packs categorised?
Each time an article is added to the database, it is assigned a Search Pack to sit in, based on it’s topic. For example, if one of our librarians is adding a new article about the safety of home birth, they will assign it the code ‘MS5’, which would put it into the Search Pack ‘Home birth – safety’. You can find which codes are attached to which Search Packs by looking at our Search Pack Brochure, which contains a full list of our Search Packs.
What's included?
Each Search Pack contains a list of bibliographic references and accompanying article abstracts, including all articles on the topic that are scanned into our database.
Please note that our Search Packs don’t provide full articles for all research within the Pack. Where articles are freely available online, we provide the link to the relevant website, making your researching efficient. However, the cost of supplying full downloadable copies of articles that aren’t freely available are prohibitive. We would prefer to offer midwifery’s most comprehensive resource database for the best price.
Who has access to Search Packs?
Subscribers
Search Packs (excluding bespoke searches) are FREE to view and print. Simply log in to your MIDIRS account, navigate to the MIC database and start searching, using your chosen topic’s corresponding search code, as seen in the Search Pack Brochure.
Subscribers will view Search Packs as a series of interactive results, which can be filtered to suit your requirements (by date or source, for instance). Where available, subscribers will also be given the link to access full articles.
Non-Subscribers
Search Packs can be accessed for a small fee. To see our current costs for purchasing a Search Pack, and to place an order with our librarians, please navigate to our Products, Services & Student Support page. When placing an order, please have the name and code of your desired Search Pack ready. A full list of the Packs available to order are found on our Search Pack Brochure.
Non-subscribers will be emailed a PDF of the Search Pack, which they can use to source freely-available articles online.
Using Search Packs
For subscribers, there are two ways to use Search Packs:
- Firstly, subscribers can use the Search Pack code to search the database, bringing up all articles on the topic, which you can then filter by author, keyword, source, date or title, if you wish.
- Secondly, you can download a Search Pack document, so that all the research on a specific topic is compiled into one PDF, for easy viewing. Each of these documents contains a list of bibliographic references and article abstracts. You can then use this information to source the full texts from your university, workplace or online (where available).
For non-subscribers purchasing a one-off Search Pack, our librarians will compile your chosen Search Pack into a PDF document.
Watch our database video tutorial:
Logging in to the MIC
Updated video of logging into the new website MIC.
Searching within the MIC
Updated video of searching within the new website MIC.
Downloading a Search Pack
Updated video of downloading a Search Pack.
What topics are covered?
We have over 550 Search Packs, with 11 new topics added in 2025, covering almost any topic you can think of in maternity research.
Broad topics such as breastfeeding are divided into sub-categories like “Marketing infant formula”, “Mastitis” or “Nipple shields” to ensure that the searches are specific and tailored to your research needs. The topic of breastfeeding alone has over 50 Search Packs within it!
A list of all Search Packs can be found in the Search Pack Brochure.
Can I request a topic of my own?
We would be delighted to consider request for new Search Pack topics. Simply let us know by contacting us.
Additionally, if you are looking for research on a specific topic that is not a Search Pack, you can order a bespoke literature search. For a small fee, both subscribers and non-subscribers can have a MIDIRS librarian carry out a comprehensive search of the MIC database for you. To see our prices and order your bespoke search, head to our Products, Services & Student Support page: