A new Netflix documentary, A Child of My Own, delves into the shocking case of Eleonor Alejandra Marín Mendoza, a Mexican woman who faked a pregnancy for months before abducting a newborn from a hospital in Mexico City. The film, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Maite Alberdi, explores the psychological and social pressures that drove Mendoza to commit the crime, which resulted in a 13-year prison sentence.
The Deception Begins
Mendoza, known as Alejandra, married Arturo at age 17 in 2000, filled with hope of starting a family. Working as a health administrator, she suffered successive miscarriages, each one deepening her despair. After her third miscarriage in 2009, following IVF treatment, she made a fateful decision: instead of revealing the loss, she chose to live as if she were still pregnant.
She meticulously researched pregnancy symptoms, overate to gain weight, pretended to feel nauseous, attended prenatal yoga classes, and even showed her family an ultrasound photo from her work files. She wore maternity clothes and accepted a baby shower from friends. When her husband touched her belly, she tightened her muscles to make it feel firmer, maintaining the illusion.
A Doctor's Misdiagnosis
A few months into her fake pregnancy, Mendoza began feeling unwell, likely due to her rapid weight gain and poor diet. Her husband insisted on a doctor's visit. The doctor, using a Doppler fetal monitor, failed to find a heartbeat, and the documentary depicts the moment Mendoza hoped the lie would end. However, the doctor then used a Pinard stethoscope and claimed to hear a heartbeat, authorizing 90 days of maternity leave.
Alberdi told Metro that she consulted doctors who explained that a mother's fast, strong heartbeat can be mistaken for a baby's. 'The thing that really shocked me the most was that the doctor gave her maternity leave. I think she was really expecting to stop her lie there,' she said. Mendoza herself recalled, 'At that point I wasn't Alejandra any more. I was not well. In my head I was saying, what if I was pregnant? What if I didn't have a miscarriage? There was a lot going on in my head that wasn't right.'
The Abduction
As her due date approached, Mendoza told Arturo she was going to the hospital for a caesarean and that he should wait. At the Hospital General de México, she encountered Mayra, a new mother who had given birth and was suffering from a fever and infection. Mayra left her baby briefly to go to the bathroom, asking roommates to watch her. Mendoza seized the opportunity, placed the newborn in a large gift bag, and walked out of the hospital, passing security guards unnoticed.
Mayra, in the documentary, recalls, 'I came back and my daughter was gone. The first thing I thought was maybe they are bathing her or they took her to feed her. I thought a nurse would have her. Never, never did I think my baby was kidnapped.'
Arrest and Aftermath
The newborn's father made a tearful television appeal. Within six hours, police stormed Mendoza's home and arrested her. The baby was safely returned. Mendoza was charged with kidnap and sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison. Arturo, initially charged and jailed, was later acquitted.
Mayra remains traumatized, saying, 'I don't think I can ever forgive her.' She still doesn't allow her daughter to attend parties for fear she won't come back. The baby girl, now 16, is reportedly happy and healthy.
Understanding the Crime
Alberdi, who met Mendoza while working on a project about women in prison, spent four years with her to understand the story. 'I couldn't believe how and why someone needed to fake a pregnancy, and that opened many questions about social pressure on women and the desire to become a mum,' she told Metro.
A psychologist in the documentary explains, 'Her psychological pregnancy was a way to mitigate the reality of not having children. It was her reaction to all the social demands from her family. The diagnosis we made of Alejandra was that she tends to dissociate, and in that dissociation, she convinces herself something is true, and is able to confuse fantasy with reality.'
Mendoza herself says, 'There were so many times I just wanted to say this isn't real, this isn't happening, but I couldn't. I was really suffering on the inside. It hurt to see how happy my parents were, my family, my grandmother. I wish someone had burst that bubble of lies.'
A Complex Humanity
Alberdi emphasizes that the film aims to show complexity. 'The exercise of this film is to show that humanity is complex. Cinema and television make us think you have good people and bad people. But life is not like that. Good people make mistakes. It happens all the time. I felt real empathy and sadness for Alejandra,' she said.
Mendoza, now released, is reflective. She told Arturo she wouldn't undergo treatment and he should find happiness elsewhere. After a short relationship, Arturo had a baby boy, but later returned to Mendoza. She says, 'He told me that he missed me, that he loved me and he wanted me to be in his life, that we should try again. So I decided to give it a try. It makes me very happy to see him smile and fulfilled as a father. It makes me even happier that he sees me in his life as a mother to his son.'
