• Breasts are large sweat glands that have become modified to produce milk instead of sweat
• Even a newborn baby has some basic breast tissue, which started to develop when it was a 6-week-old foetus
• Newborn babies can have noticeable breasts. This is perfectly normal and occurs because the mother’s oestrogen hormone has stimulated the baby’s breast tissue. The breast swelling gradually disappears over a few weeks
• The first bra was invented by New York socialite Mary Jacobs in 1913. She used two hankies and some ribbon, and then patented the idea
• The number of breast enlargement operations has declined in recent years. In the UK, 7,745 were done in 2018 – down 6% from the year before, and 4,299 breast reductions were done which was up 6%. (BAAPS Audit Results 2019)
• Breast enlargement is more common than rhinoplasty (nose job). In the UK, 2,931 rhinoplasties were carried out, in 2018, up 3% from the previous year (BAAPS Audit Results 2019).

First published on: embarrassingproblems.com
Reviewed and edited by: Dr Victoria Harmer
Last updated: October 2020