Credit: Netflix

A Child of My Own is an eye-opening hybrid Netflix documentary that explores and dramatises the true story of Eleonor Alejandra Marín Mendoza, a young Mexican woman who faked a pregnancy to meet societal expectations and fulfil the family pressures imposed by her in-laws and her husband following multiple miscarriages.

Born and raised in Mexico, Mendoza was 17 when she tied the knot with Arturo Calderón Gamiño in 2000. While she was already pregnant at the time, she unfortunately suffered a miscarriage, which prompted her to turn to IVF in her 20s. Although her husband desperately wanted a child, specifically a boy, the procedure resulted in more losses.

A Child of My Own details Mendoza’s story through real-life interviews and reenactments, recounting the immense pressure she was put through to become a mother by both her family and society. It was when she suffered a third miscarriage at 26 in 2009 that she decided to conceal the truth from her husband, instead faking a full-term pregnancy.

At the time, Mendoza was working as an administrator at Mexico City’s Hospital General de Mexico. So, when the due date neared, she developed a scheme to steal a newborn from the hospital’s maternity ward. Although she claimed that she had an arrangement with an unhappy expectant mother, Mayra, who didn’t want to keep her child, and they had struck a deal that she would give Mendoza the child after she had given birth, Mayra’s witness statements differ in more ways than one (via The Guardian).

According to Mayra, she never met Mendoza before giving birth. It was only after Mendoza kidnapped her daughter, posing as a social worker, that she knew of her.

The CCTV footage also gave Mendoza away, as she was seen leaving the hospital with a child in a large gift bag, where her husband was already waiting. Arturo allegedly realised that Mendoza had been faking a pregnancy when he saw the newborn. Both were eventually arrested at Hotel Hollywood Villa & Suites in Mexico City.

Mendoza was found guilty of kidnapping or the illegal deprivation of liberty of a minor in 2011, resulting in a 13-year sentence. Meanwhile, her husband was acquitted of any wrongdoing after two years in prison.

So, for those curious, Mendoza, now in her 40s, is a free woman. She served her full sentence and was released from prison in 2023. However, director Maite Alberdi reveals that Mendoza maintains her claims of prior agreement with Mayra, despite the evidence against her.

In A Child of My Own, Mendoza sheds light on the case nearly two decades after the crime. “I felt pressured to please his family. It was such a strong desire to be a mom that I got drawn into problems that got bigger and bigger, and I started taking decisions and actions that got more complicated. Until there was no way out and no turning back,” she says in the film.