When breastfeeding comes to an end, it should be a liberating rite of passage for any new mum, but when writer Katie Scott stopped, she hit rock bottom. It was only after crying alone in a car park that she found out that lots of her friends had experienced a similar patch of poor mental health after weaning their babies. Here, she chats to experts in the field about why those pesky pregnancy hormones can have such a devastating impact months or years after giving birth, and asks if it’s something that can be mitigated.