Donna Gall is a freelance director, researcher and writer currently in preproduction on her first independent documentary, Northway Girls, about the oldest girls’ camp in Canada.

Kerri gripped the edge of her gurney, straining to squeeze the football-sized baby out of her tiny dancer’s body. I gripped the edge of my couch, silently rooting her on, willing her to bear down and push. As the baby finally catapulted forth, I flicked off the television and breathed a sigh of relief. But my thoughts soon turned from euphoria to curiosity. Why in the world would anyone want to give birth on national television? As it turned out, Kerri was thinking much the same herself.

TV today abounds with documentary series peering into the private lives of willing subjects. We’re not talking about wannabe pop stars marrying millionaires while trying to survive in the jungle; these are so-called ‘ordinary people’ who agree to allow a camera crew to stick a light where the sun doesn’t typically shine.

Why would anyone – with no thought of financial compensation – agree to invite a nation of strangers to consume the personal details of his or her life? What could he or she possibly hope to get out of the experience?

For Kerri and her husband Shaun, pregnant with baby number two, the decision to appear on Birth Stories, produced by Cineflix for Life Network, grew out of concern that the excitement and event-like nature of their first pregnancy wasn’t being replicated for this second baby. With a busy life working and chasing after two-year-old Owen, Kerri says, ‘I didn’t want the [new] child feeling like [his or her] life wasn’t as celebrated as the first birth.’

Kerri also remembered her first birthing experience, relaxed in epidural bliss. But this second delivery progressed so quickly that an epidural wasn’t an option.

‘That was when I had to say ‘What was I thinking?” she recalls. ‘I was in so much pain and the cameras were rolling… But, after a couple of minutes, you just forget they’re there.’

Kerri and Shaun express no regret, but they insist any future birthing would be conducted off-camera.

Patricia and Steve, on the other hand, say they would participate again in Birth Stories in a heartbeat. Pregnant after losing twins to stillbirth, they agreed to appear on the program to both help themselves get through the pain of their loss and relieve their stress as they waited for their child to be born. Patricia also felt that their story might be a comfort to other parents who had suffered a stillbirth.

‘We wanted [everybody] to know that just because something like this happened does not mean it’s the end of the world,’ she explains.

Series producer Gail Gallant believes that those who agree to appear on Birth Stories usually do so for multi-layered reasons.

‘It’s a reflection of where people feel they are in their lives,’ she says. ‘They’re dealing with a real hardship or a real challenge and there is a determination there. They want witnesses, and I think they want support in some kind of emotional way that comes from sharing.’

While most Birth Stories eps have a celebratory ending built in, the same can’t always be said of the recently launched Family Secrets series produced by Makin’ Movies for W. Each episode follows a subject who has been through a life-altering experience – a highly personal and sometimes painful occurrence – and is trying to come to terms with it within the family structure.

Donald D’Haene had already publicly confronted the sexual abuse he and his siblings suffered at the hands of his father in his autobiography. He agreed to tell his story again on Family Secrets to educate the public and help other abuse survivors by speaking openly about his experience. While he was sure of his motivations, filming the doc proved difficult.

‘Other than interviewing them for the book, I’ve never talked about [the abuse] with my family members,’ Donald says. ‘I talked about things on camera for the documentary that we would never sit around talking about.’

For Donald, speaking with his family within the structure of shooting the doc was therapeutic. The rules of engagement, if you will, allowed for communication that doesn’t often occur in everyday life.

Show producer Maureen Judge (Unveiled: The Mother Daughter Relationship) feels that each of her subjects has different reasons for participating. Some have a personal or political agenda, whereas for some it could be simply vanity. For others, she believes it can ‘be a way of having company through that difficult time in their lives.’

For me, the question of why people agree to be doc subjects is becoming more immediate as I prepare to make my first doc. Northway Girls will tell the story of my childhood experience at Northway Lodge, the oldest girls’ camp in Canada. I’m not exactly giving birth, but this film will require me to offer up a part of my life for public consumption as I explore the influence the camp had on my development.

I’m taking the leap in front of the camera because the story is mine to tell, but I’m also hoping that the experience might make me a better filmmaker. Maybe all doc makers should at some point turn the camera on themselves, to see what it feels like to be on the other side of the lens.