Answered By: Trudi Pledger
Last Updated: Sep 16, 2020     Views: 2655

The main databases for a Midwifery student are: 

  • CINAHL  (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) is a major literature resource in the field of nursing and allied health and is the most widely used and comprehensive database for locating nursing and midwifery journal articles. It provides over one million references to research from over 2,928 international journals, and is updated weekly and available from 1981 onwards. (Best viewed using Chrome).
  • Maternity and Infant Care is produced by MIDIRS (Midwives Information and Resource Service), an educational not-for-profit organisation set up in 1985 “to be the central source of information relating to childbirth and to disseminate this information to midwives and others”.The database has over 120,000 references to articles from over 550 English-language journals, books and reports relating to midwifery, pregnancy, labour, birth, postnatal and neonatal care and the first year of an infant’s life. The database goes back to 1971.
  • Science Direct Freedom Collection provides summaries of journal articles, and full-text for selected journals.Access to over 2000 full text scientific, technical and medical (STM) journals published since 1 January 1995 (Green icon shows subscribed content).
  • Cochrane includes three key databases:Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews - Systematic reviews of evidence related to clinical interventions and authored by the Cochrane Collaboration. (Full text)Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effect - Abstracts for systematic reviews and meta-analysis which have been published in journals and other resources. (Reference and abstract only)Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials - Abstracts of clinical trials published in journals. (Reference and abstract only)
  • Medline is the key indexing service for the journal literature of Medicine. You may have seen or used PubMed (Public Medline) which is exactly the same database but open access. Medline should be the preferred choice as it offers a higher level of sophistication in the search and there are additional links to full-text articles only available through Birmingham City University subscriptions. Use Medline when you need Medically focussed information, particularly related to interventions. (Best viewed using Chrome).

For further information and details of other useful resources check out the Midwifery Subject Guide 

If you would like help using any of these resources you can attend one of our literature searching workshops; book a tutorial with a member of the Library Liaison Team at the Mary Seacole Library; or visit the Mary Seacole Library helpdesk during staffed hours

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