Two Bras, a Shawl, and a Breast Pump — Every Single Day
Every morning, before Sanjuna could do anything else — before she could make tea, before she could check on her newborn, before she could think about getting ready for the day — she had to sit down with a breast pump. And she had to stay there for two to three hours.
Her daughter was hungry. But Sanjuna couldn’t feed her directly. The left breast, now dramatically larger than the right, had a nipple that had turned inward — inverted, retracted, impossible for a newborn to latch onto. Her gynecologist had confirmed it. There was simply no way for her baby to feed from that side.
“I had to sit for at least 2-3 hours everyday with the milk exporter and had to export the milk and feed her which was like very very problematic situation.”
This had not always been her reality. Sanjuna, an IT professional, had first noticed a size difference between her breasts about three years earlier — the left running roughly 20% larger than the right. Tests at the time showed nothing alarming, just some mild glandular growth. Doctors advised her to complete her pregnancy first and revisit the question surgically afterward if needed. During the pregnancy itself, the difference held steady, hovering around 20 to 30 percent — noticeable, but manageable.
Then she delivered. And everything changed.
“Once I delivered, the left one started growing much bigger, it was like 70% bigger than the right one and I couldn’t feed my baby which was like a biggest problem for me.”
Overnight, what had been a minor imbalance became a significant physical and emotional crisis. For five to six months, Sanjuna’s days were shaped entirely around this new reality. She layered two bras every time she got dressed. She draped an extra dupatta or shawl across her body before stepping outside — or even walking around the house. She had mood swings. Her confidence eroded quietly, steadily, in a way she hadn’t anticipated and couldn’t easily explain to people around her.
She was a new mother. That was supposed to be the hardest part.
The Day She Left the Shawl at Home
Today, Sanjuna holds her daughter on both sides.
That detail — simple as it sounds — represents everything that has changed. For months, she could only settle her baby on her right side. The left was off-limits, unwieldy, a source of discomfort and self-consciousness. Now, there is no asymmetry to work around. No breast pump ritual before sunrise. No layering of clothing to hide what her body had become.
“I was very low confident because I had to wear 2 bras just to have both of them in sync and I had to wear extra dupatta or shawl every time I had to go out or at least roam in the house.”
The contrast she describes now is not about how she looks in the mirror — it’s about what she can do. She can get dressed without strategy. She can leave the house without a shawl she doesn’t want to wear. She can hold her daughter the way she always imagined she would.
She was discharged from the clinic within a single day of surgery. The recovery, she says, brought her no significant pain. When she looks back at the difficult period, what she remembers is not the operation — it’s the months that preceded it.
The mood swings are gone. The confidence she describes losing so gradually has quietly returned.
How She Got from There to Here — The Decision, the Doctor, the Surgery
For months, Sanjuna absorbed the situation as best she could. But living with a 70% volume difference between her breasts — while simultaneously navigating the demands of a newborn — was not sustainable. Eventually, she spoke with her husband, a general physician, who encouraged her to consult a surgeon and understand what options existed, surgical or otherwise.
He was also among the people who mentioned Dr. Anjali Saple’s name.
Others had recommended her too. So Sanjuna made her way to Divyam Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery in Visakhapatnam. She arrived, by her own account, uncertain. She didn’t know what the next step looked like. She wasn’t sure a solution was even within reach. She sat down with Dr. Anjali and explained everything — the asymmetry, the inverted nipple, the months of pumping milk for two to three hours every day, the two bras, the shawl, the way all of it had worn her down during what should have been one of the most joyful periods of her life.
Dr. Anjali listened. And then she spoke with a calm certainty that Sanjuna hadn’t expected.
“She was very confident that my old age could come back. So just looking at her face, I had this motivational spark.”
That moment — not a brochure, not a before-and-after photograph, but the expression on a surgeon’s face — was what gave Sanjuna the resolve to say yes.
She was admitted, underwent breast reduction surgery under general anesthesia, and found the experience almost disorienting in how unremarkable it felt.
“I got admitted just on a random day, took anesthesia and within no time I didn’t even realize that the surgery went.”
She was discharged within a day. The surgery that had seemed like a significant, uncertain leap turned out to be the least painful part of the entire journey. What Dr. Anjali performed was a breast reduction — reducing the volume of the enlarged left breast to restore symmetry, and in doing so, resolving the nipple condition that had made breastfeeding impossible.
“Being a mother itself is a tough phase and on top of it I had to undergo all of these for at least 5-6 months.”
Sanjuna’s message to anyone in a similar situation is uncomplicated: come in, sit down, and talk. She describes Dr. Anjali as friendly, skilled, and genuinely caring — someone who meets patients where they are, especially when they arrive not knowing what they need or whether help is even possible.
For Sanjuna, the answer turned out to be one surgery, one day in hospital, and a life that finally felt like her own again.