A Fake Pregnancy and a Kidnapping: The True Story Behind A Child of My Own

In the documentary A Child of My Own, Ana Celeste Montalvo (right) and Armando Espitia star as Ale and Arturo, acting out Ale's version of the story —Luis Antonio Rojas—Netflix A new Netflix documentary finds an unconventional way into the wild true story of a woman who pretended to be pregnant and kidnapped a newborn baby from a hospital.

A Child of My Own , out Aug.

13 on Netflix, follows Eleonor Alejandra Marin Mendoza, nicknamed Ale, who served more than 13 years in prison for kidnapping a baby in 2009 at the Mexico City hospital where she worked.

Before taking the baby, Ale had faked being pregnant to her family and friends.

Ale does not deny the fake pregnancy or the kidnapping, saying in the documentary, “What did I do wrong to be here? Breaking the law, lying, deceiving, causing pain.” Her retelling of the crime is so dramatic that the first 50 minutes of A Child of My Own are produced like a feature film, with professional actors playing out Ale's version of events.

Then, it’s followed by interviews with the real-life Ale, the baby’s mother, Mayra Navarro, Ale’s partner, Arturo Garmiño, and a judge who presided over Ale’s case, Taissia Cruz Parcero.

Here’s what to know about the scandal that made headlines in Mexico, why Ale felt compelled to fake a pregnancy and kidnap a baby, and how she got caught.

The question of consent The dramatized first half of the film is meant to represent director Maite Alberdi’s own journey exploring this subject as a documentary filmmaker, starting with meeting Ale in prison in 2022 while working on another project and learning her side of the story.

And it is meant to represent Ale’s “fairy tale” version of events, “the story that she tells herself to survive,” says Alberdi.

“She’s dreaming.” Ale doesn’t deny taking the baby, but to this day, she insists that the baby’s mother Mayra agreed to give it to her.

At the same time, Ale pretended to be pregnant, doctoring medical records to make it look like she had ultrasounds and binge-eating junk food to put on weight quickly so that her belly would expand.

When it came time to “give birth,” her plan was to pretend to deliver at the hospital by herself and then surprise her husband at home with Mayra's baby.

Ale says she met Mayra in a hospital waiting room five months before Mayra was due to give birth.

Ale claims that Mayra said she wanted to get an abortion , but told Ale that she decided she would rather give the baby up for adoption .