EastEnders spoilers follow for Monday’s episode (19 May), which is available to watch now on streaming service BBC iPlayer and hasn’t yet aired on TV.
EastEnders’ Lauren Branning has made a devastating discovery, which has left her questioning her and her family’s future.
Lauren recently gave birth to her son Jimmy but is finding it difficult to look after him – and in today’s episode, she struggled to breastfeed him in the middle of the night.
The next morning, Lauren expressed her concerns to Peter and explained that she was determined to do right by her son after the harm she might have caused him during the pregnancy.
She continued to shut down Cindy’s attempts to reach out to her and build a relationship with her grandson, and she refused to talk to Peter for her.
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While catching up with Zack, Lauren admitted how much she was struggling and told him that Jimmy is proving much harder than Louie was as a baby.
Back at home, Lauren took her dose of methadone to control her addiction and told Peter that she is sure there was something not right with Jimmy.
Linda came to visit but soon realised that Lauren wasn’t in a good place, so she decided to have a chat with her alone.
Related: EastEnders favourite Max Branning tipped for shocking return after four years away
The pair had an emotional heart-to-heart about addiction – and Linda understood, as she relapsed in her alcoholism last year and went to rehab before Christmas.
Lauren thought that Peter was relieved by the suggestion that she might stop breastfeeding, thinking that he didn’t want her poisoning their son.
Linda convinced her that she was doing a good job caring for Jimmy and encouraged her to have more confidence in herself.
Related: Lacey Turner opens up over "never-ending" guilt as she quits EastEnders
But when Lauren repeated her concerns about Jimmy, Linda advocated for the power of a mother’s instinct, and recommended that she gets a second opinion.
Following her chat with Linda, Lauren told Peter that she was going to keep trying to breastfeed and would trust herself more in future.
But later, she overheard Peter talking to Linda on the baby monitor, where he said that he feared that they will never escape her addiction and it will affect the boys for their whole lives.
Will this admission set Lauren back further?
EastEnders airs on Mondays - Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast.
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