‘She wasn’t acting, she wanted to live it’: how a fake pregnancy resulted in the wildest true crime film of the year

Netflix documentary A Child of My Own tells the stranger-than-fiction story of a hospital worker who went to extreme lengths in her efforts to become a mother. Its director recounts their meetings in a Mexican prison

The CCTV footage of the hospital corridor is grainy but you can make out a young woman carrying an oversized gift bag. Nothing unusual there. Except that inside the bag is a newborn baby girl, just hours old. And the woman carrying the bag, walking out of the hospital’s main entrance, past two security guards who are idly chatting, is not the baby’s mother.

Her name is Eleonor Alejandra Marín Mendoza, known to everyone as Alejandra. When film-maker Maite Alberdi met her in a low-security Mexican prison, Alejandra was in the final year of a 13-year jail sentence for snatching the baby. Alberdi listened rapt as Alejandra told her story: “Everything she was telling me was extraordinary, stranger than fiction.”

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/TS0UYDw

Regulation cannot eliminate surrogacy risks | Letter

Lexi Ellingsworth of Stop Surrogacy Now UK responds to news that the rise in the use of surrogates abroad is leaving more babies at risk of becoming stateless

Your article (Rise in overseas surrogates ‘increases risk of stateless babies, 19 July) suggests that the solution lies in better regulation to make surrogacy safe and ethical. But regulation cannot remove the central ethical problem: every surrogacy arrangement begins with the deliberate separation of a newborn baby from their mother, who they have naturally bonded with throughout the pregnancy.

Regulation is also not able to eliminate the physical risks borne exclusively by surrogate mothers. A study in Canada has suggested that surrogate mothers are more likely to experience severe complications including postpartum haemorrhage and pre-eclampsia than women who conceived naturally or with IVF.

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/DLjC7JG

‘I was full of fears’: the story of a premature birth – in pictures

João Linneu’s raw and intimate photographs capture his partner and child as they navigate isolation, lumbar punctures and even a lightning storm

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/bMZ6l4J

I was struggling after eight rounds of IVF – and then a former midwife became my surrogate

Narzny McKinney and her surrogate, Sarah, discuss their experience – and the misconceptions that surround the practice

After struggling with infertility and eight unsuccessful rounds of IVF, Narzny McKinney had two precious embryos left – her last chance to have biological children. After considering her options, she made the decision to find a surrogate to carry her child for her.

“We were eight years down the line at this point and I just didn’t want to risk anything going wrong,” she said. “It was a tough decision but it was absolutely the right thing to do.”

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/Tt2ZsU8

UK surrogacy law ‘creaking at seams’ as demand rises sharply

Experts urge ministers to update legislation to prevent intended parents resorting to riskier arrangements abroad

Surrogates, parents and children are being failed by the UK’s archaic laws, which are “creaking at the seams” as demand for surrogacy grows rapidly, experts have said.

Figures obtained by the Guardian show there were just under 1,000 children born to surrogates in 2025, double the number in 2015. The rise has been driven by a rise in the number of gay couples seeking to be parents, increasing infertility and shifting cultural attitudes.

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/82moQuM

A friend, Facebook or ... Ukraine? No easy surrogacy options for Australian families desperate for children

With huge amounts of money at stake and power imbalances in play, the Australian Law Reform Commission is looking at how to better regulate the industry

Over eight years, Ethan and his wife went through nine rounds of IVF in Melbourne.

They travelled to Spain for two more, without success.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best read

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/h0TviBS

For survivors of forced adoption, the trauma can last a lifetime | Letters

Readers respond to an article by David Batty about the postwar removal of babies from unmarried mothers, and his call for proper redress for survivors like him

I gave up my child for adoption in the late 1960s. I was just 20. It was my choice, but no choice at all (Britain’s apology for the scandal of forced adoption won’t – on its own – heal the wounds of survivors like me, 2 July). The circumstances were such that unless you had parental or a partner’s support, or a trust fund, it was practically impossible to keep your child. I have discovered through coverage of the government’s apology that some state funding was available. It was never mentioned to me.

I had planned to give up my child because I believed the propaganda: as an unmarried mother I could not give her a proper home. What I had not expected was the love I felt. When her father offered to marry me, I jumped at the chance and took the child away from prospective adopted parents. Three days before our wedding, the child’s father left me. My mother had not let me into the house once my pregnancy became obvious, so going home was not an option. I called the adoption agency and said goodbye to her in a small room somewhere near Baker Street.

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/kuo4I6M