About 50 to 100 people showed up, but there are screenings all this week at the Zürich Film Festival and Abby Epstein will be there for discussion at all of them.
Mostly there was a lot of praise for Abby. Also we discussed birth here in Switzerland and the trend to follow down the US path to more sections. We also discussed the doula movement here and in America. There are only 35 total here in Switzerland and many midwives see them as competition (hospital midwives that is). Really stupid. As a student midwife myself, I see them as an asset and an extra pair of hands.
The funny/sad thing is after the question session, where I had to put my 2 cents in, as I was coming out... I was accosted by about 4 pregnant women wanting me to be their midwife. Unfortunately I am a) a student and b) an hour and a half away in Bern. Zürich has a pretty tough birth climate and it's hard to find an independent midwife. I felt so bad. One of the women was 28 week pregnant and had just moved from Germany to Switzerland... trying to figure all this crap out. Bummer.
