ACCORDING TO an article from the PR Newswire, American women spend close to $3 billion buying more than 300 million bras, but most of the bras bought are misfits. Women's Health Matters Newsletter states that eight of 10 women are wearing the wrong size bra.

It's no wonder that women get bras that don't fit properly. One local man who had channel-surfed to a daytime television show on which guests were discussing bra sizing declared that it sounded like a science.

Guides on how to measure for a proper fit abound, adding to the confusion. Just one quick search on the Internet revealed a half-dozen methods and calculations.

These statistics are no surprise to Davidsonville resident Cheryl Neidig. She spent most of her life wearing the wrong size.

She'd buy two or three bras and hope for the best, only to give most of them away because they fit poorly. She found trying on bras a little like trying on shoes.

"You try them on in the store for five minutes or so, and they seem fine," she said. "You take them home and wear them for 10 or 12 hours, and they are just not comfortable."

Finding a properly fitting bra became even more difficult for her after a surgery and occasional weight gain and loss.

Her frustration evaporated after a consultation and bra-shopping trip with Nancy Carmen of Annapolis.

Carmen is a personal bra-fitter or independent bra consultant. Call her services what you like, women throughout the region are finding confidence and comfort after enlisting her services.

She has helped women with bra-sizing after breast-changing experiences such as pregnancy, major weight changes, mastectomies and aging. She's even worked with customers who wanted to see what they would look like with breast augmentation before deciding upon the surgery. But most of the women she sees are those who simply have never found a bra with which they were happy.

Annapolis resident Tina Ricker was pretty sure she knew what size she was, but had always been interested in finding a more comfortable bra.

A mother of three young children, she saw an ad for Carmen's services in a local paper and thought it was a little odd. Like many people, she didn't know that anyone provided these services and decided to give it a try.

"I decided I was worth it and wanted someone who would give me the personal attention," she said. "Having the right bra makes your posture better and makes you look a lot better."

Joanne Johnson of Annapolis said she has always been in between sizes and was never comfortable going into a store and saying, "Hi, I want to be fitted." She said she preferred knowing something about the person who was fitting her.

Carmen was just the ticket. She taught Johnson what to look for and suggested styles that would be most comfortable for her.

Carmen has been fitting bras since 1994, when she was trained by a retail company. She liked the satisfaction of helping women find the right bras but didn't care much for the "sales girl" aspect of the job. She started her company, The Bra Fitter, a year and a half ago on a hunch that there might be a market among women who were frustrated with their experiences and wanted personal service. So far, she has heard of no one else in this business.

"Every woman I ever fit would say, 'I hate bra shopping, I'm so glad you are here,'" says Carmen. "The problem is people don't get the right size."

Carmen educates her customers about accurate measuring and the characteristics of bras so that they can go shopping with confidence without her. She begins by interviewing her clients on the telephone. She then meets them at the Annapolis Mall, which has a wide selection of bras.

For her mastectomy clients, she goes to A Special Touch, a shop at Anne Arundel Medical Center that specializes in items for female cancer patients. When Carmen and her client are done, the latter goes home with a list of every bra she tried on and usually at least one new bra. Armed with knowledge, the client can shop with confidence and success in the future.

Because Carmen is an independent consultant, she can fit any bra, not only those from a given store or company. Salespeople know her and are very receptive to her - after all, she sells their bras for them. "They appreciate happy customers," Carmen says.

Woman's World magazine recently sought her professional opinion for a review of bras that appeared last month.

Carmen says she knew she had the skill and wanted women to feel confident with what they bought and what they learned.

"My success is in the happiness of the customers, making them feel good about themselves."

One thing she wishes is that mothers would bring their daughters for a first fit so they are not guessing from the beginning. "It's a gift that will last a lifetime," she says.

To contact The Bra Fitter: 410-757-7371.