Breasts

The breasts are the 2 bulges on a woman’s chest.

Each breast consists of: 

Fat, mammary glands and ducts inside the breast:

• Mammary glands: small organs that produce breast milk.
• Ducts: small tubes that carry milk toward the nipple.

The nipple and the areola on the outside of the breast:

• Nipple: small knob in the middle of the breast.
• Areola: dark circle around the nipple.

The breasts have 2 functions:

• A woman can breastfeed her baby with breast milk.
• The nipples are very sensitive. Touching or caressing the nipples can give a woman sexual pleasure. If a woman is aroused, the nipples harden. The nipples can also harden for other reasons. For instance, if the woman feels cold.

Every woman’s breasts are different. Breasts can be small or big, round or slightly oval. What they look like is not important for the way they function.

During pregnancy, the breasts prepare for producing breast milk. They:

• Grow bigger.
• Become more sensitive and sometimes painful.
• May already leak a little breastmilk.