O'Brien answered some questions exclusively for the Huffington Post including some personal connections like these two:
Q: How does being a mother of four yourself influence your desire to do a story like this?
A: I hope that any good journalist would say--this is a story that people need to know about. But as a mother--I guess any parent full grasps the horrible choice in handing off your child because you just can care for him because you have no job, and a result, no food. It's heartbreaking. We capture some of those moments in this documentary: a mother who begs to stay in the orphanage. But they can't take her--it's already too crowded. The orphanage is also running out of food. So, she hands over her infant--"please take him". It's so powerful and so desperately sad
Q: How do you explain the difficulties you report on to your children?
A: My children are young, ages 9, 8 and 5 year old twins. We talk a lot about the stories I'm covering and the work I'm doing. They've seen the documentary and were riveted--all four kids! Then watched it again! It's a story anyone of any age can understand. I think they feel good about the stories I tell--they get to ask lots of questions (the main one is "did babies die") and we discuss in great depth the why. Why slavery? Why poverty? Why hurricanes? Why earthquakes? I can't always answer the questions but we always discuss the issues. I think that they're developing a special understanding about the world through the stories I tell.
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