A Child of My Own: Netflix to reveal shocking true story of a hospital worker's fake pregnancy

Fans of true crime docufilms should gear up to witness the shocking true story of a hospital worker's fake pregnancy in A Child of My Own, premiering on August 13 on Netflix. It looks like Netflix plans to present viewers with an emotional story about hope, family, and the dream of becoming a parent.

The film tells the unbelievable story of a hospital employee named Eleonor Alejandra Marín Mendoza, who crossed all limits to become a mother. Her strong desire to become a mother and the constant pressure from her surroundings led her to pretend that she was pregnant.

She began her story with a small lie, but it quickly grew into something that she hid for months from her hopeful husband and family. Trapped in this false narrative, she reached a point where turning back was impossible. Her actions sparked a media scandal that shook the entire nation.

Continue reading more about the shocking Alejandra's fake pregnancy in A Child of My Own.

Alejandra's back-to-back miscarriages

Moment from A Child of My Own (Image via Netflix)

A Child of My Own is a story filled with drama and secrets. Alejandra was only 17 and already carrying a child when she married Arturo in a fairytale wedding. She and her husband desperately wanted a child, but the expectations from a sceptical mother-in-law made her suffer back-to-back miscarriages.

Still in her twenties, she tried IVF. When she became pregnant for the third time, she miscarried again, but this time she hid the truth and pretended to be pregnant for nine months. As a result, she kept the hope alive in her husband, her doctors, and her family. She relied on another mysterious person to carry out their part of the secret deal.

Who is the mysterious person?

In A Child of My Own, Alejandra started telling her past stories, and twists kept coming. She worked in administration at a hospital, where she met a single pregnant mother, Mayra, who was unwilling to raise her child. The two women made a plan that when the baby was born, she would give it to Alejandra.

Five months later, Alejandra went to the hospital and took the newborn girl. Soon after, complications arose, and the police were alerted. Alejandra was arrested hours later at a nearby hotel, and the baby was returned to the biological mother.

A Child of My Own: The director opens up about the real story of Alejandra

Chile's Oscar-nominated director, Maite Alberdi, explained that for two years, she only knew Alejandra's overall story, but didn't know what actually happened. The director kept visiting Alejandra in prison in Mexico and requested transcripts of her criminal trial.

Alberdi found that Alejandra's account did not match the facts. The court papers showed that Mayra met Alejandra for the first time only after giving birth. It was not true that Mayra was pregnant when she met her. In reality, there was no agreement between them, and instead Mayra endured the horror of her newborn being taken from her hospital cot. The evidence supported Mayra's version.

Reading this, the director felt shaken. She even thought about abandoning the film because she was disappointed and unsure if she could continue. She had trusted Alejandra, but her instinct told her the evidence was stronger. Despite the shock, Alberdi decided to continue with the project. From the beginning, she had been drawn not just to the legal case, but to the deeper issue behind Alejandra’s actions.

Alejandra had hidden her miscarriage and pretended to remain pregnant, and Alberdi wanted to explore the social pressure of motherhood in Mexico and across Latin America. For her, the film became less about the crime and more about the cultural forces that pushed Alejandra to such extremes.