Background: Breastfeeding is one of the important aspects of a woman’s life. Asymmetry/small size of the breast(s) has important psychological consequences on the mother about her capacity of milk production and ability to breastfeed her baby. Objectives: To find out the size of the breasts among lactating Indian women in the first postpartum week. Method: The study was conducted over 6 months in tertiary care hospital in Delhi involving 451 consecutive consenting mothers (18–40 years) within the first postpartum week. The breast and nipple size were estimated by anthropometry (Capraro and Dewhurst technique). Results: Mean breast unit was 565.22 cm2 and mean areolar unit was 43.18 ± 21.88 cm2. Mean breast unit and mean areolar units were similar on both sides. These were neither significantly different among various maternal age groups nor according to parity. Both breast and areolar units did not differ significantly with frequency of breastfeeding. The mean nipple length had significant positive correlation with the parity but there was no significant difference between the length of the right and left nipple. Conclusion: The size of right and left sides of breasts (as estimated by measurement of Breast Unit) was not significantly different in mothers of different ages, parity and frequency of breastfeeding in the first postpartum week. However, nipple length was found to be longer in multiparous breastfeeding mothers. The mothers having lowest range of ‘Breast Unit’ 255 cm2 also reported normal lactation output, a very encouraging finding implying that mothers with small breasts are also capable of producing enough milk for their infants.

Keywords: Breast; Breast size; Lactation; Breastfeeding counseling.