Studio 10 just showed breasts on live TV - and we're cheering.

Image: Ten Play

Ordinarily, we’d expect breasts on morning TV to garner some outraged and angry responses from the public. Yet viewers have nothing but praise for Studio 10‘s latest segment, in which a woman appeared completely topless.

Yesterday, in honour of breast cancer awareness month, the Channel 10 program brought in Dr Sam Hay and brave model Mia to demonstrate a breast self-examination live on air.

“Due to the nature of this topic we warn viewers that there will be some nudity, but we’re all adults, we think it’s really important to show exactly what’s going on rather than just talking about it,” said Sarah Harris.

The segment (below) focused on answering the biggest misconceptions and mistakes women make with breast checks, before a complete talk-through of exactly what you should do. (Post continues after video.)

“It needs to be done periodically and I think what a lot of woman don’t understand is it needs to be done as part of a bigger process, so we’re trying to find a change in your breast that may indicate risk. You’re not going to find breast cancer, but you’re going to find a lump or a bump or a change, and then it’s important to go along and see your doctor and discuss it and look whether you need any extra tests,” explained Dr Hay.

“But the biggest test that woman over 50… and probably woman over 40 should be doing is the mammogram. That’s the biggest tool we have in detecting breast cancer early, getting treatment early and then saving lives.”

After doing multiple checks to get to know what your breasts feel like, Dr Hay recommends checking your breast once a month, for example the week following your period.

How to check

To start, stand in front of a mirror and look for any immediate changes, such as the shape, puckering or dimpling in the skin, changes to the nipple or any discharge.

Then, with one hand by your side, use the flats of your fingers to to gently massage and check all around your breasts, making sure to follow the tissue up to the underarm and under the boob.

Viewers were quick to praise Studio 10 on their decision to air the demonstration on social media, with plenty leaving comments on the show’s Facebook page.

“Congratulations on a very informative segment. Great choice of model. I sure that many of us self checked during the segment too!” wrote Anna Vozzo, while Sandy Sheard said “Thank you so much studio ten for the breast exam segment. Yes I took off my top and did it along with the lovely Mia. Special thanks to Mia for helping.” (Post continues after gallery.)

According to Studio 10‘s executive producer Rob McKnight, it wasn’t a hard decision to make.

“When you’re doing something as important as this, the nudity becomes secondary… you can’t do a breast exam without breasts and we believed we needed a practical demonstration. I believe the people of Australia are mature enough to accept the fact that in order to do a breast exam, we need to show naked breasts,” he told News.com.au.

“Everyone knows how important it is, but there’s a fear in people they’re not doing it right. It became obvious this was a segment we needed to do and we decided to go for it. Yes, today we put a naked pair of breasts to air on live television, but the simple fact is we did much more than that … we might have just saved a life.”

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