This week celebrates World Breastfeeding Week and a Jacksonville woman is defying the odds after weaning her own children off breastfeeding and assisting another who couldn't. 

A mother of two, Amber Jones breastfed her children for nearly two years each, eventually weaning her youngest daughter in 2019. However, when she learned her long-time friend was struggling to feed her baby, she knew she had to do something. 

Jones' friend, who requested to not be named for personal reasons, was unable to produce breast milk, but any formula she tried to feed her son, gave him severe allergic reactions. 

"She's just exhausted," Jones said. "She is always making sure her kids are taken care of, her family. She's always giving to everybody else, every moment of every day, on top of the illnesses she's dealing with in her body." 

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Jones said she went to sleep thinking about the situation and ended up having a dream where she was breastfeeding her sister's baby. When she woke up the next morning, she knew God was trying to tell her something. 

That's when Jones chose to try relactating this past June.  

Relactation, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is the process by which a parent reestablishes lactation after having stopped for some time, whether that be weeks or months. Relactation can also apply to a parent who previously breastfed a biological child and now wishes to make milk for an adopted child, a partner’s child, or a child birthed by a surrogate.

The CDC also says assistance from a lactation consultant is often important, so they can determine the need for supplemental feedings while relactation and milk supply are being established. 

"Infants and young children who are receiving human milk from a parent who is relactating must be carefully monitored to make sure the child is getting enough calories to have normal weight gain," the CDC states. "Breast milk substitutes should be continued as needed to make sure that infants continue to receive enough nutrition if milk supply is not (yet) adequate."

To start her relactation journey, Jones was able to get a pump from someone in a military wives Facebook page, as Jones is a military wife herself. She boiled the pieces and gave it a shot that night. 

"My husband and I were watching Castle, so we put on our nightly episode of Castle and I said, you know what, I'm just going to try it," Jones said. "I turned on the pump and put it on, and nothing was happening. I was like, this feels weird, I don't like this. I just kept letting it go, and I was like, man, how can I get the milk to come out?"

Because it had been three years since she weaned her daughter, she knew it was going to be tough. Jones said she opened a picture of her son as a newborn baby, and almost instantly, a single drop of milk came out of each breast.  

"I just felt like that was a sign, God was like, yes, you can do this," Jones said. "So, I was like yes, I can do this. And so, I kept pumping, and I called a lactation consultant and I looked up a bunch of stuff online about how to do this because I'd never heard of somebody...well, I knew it was a thing, but I had never really thought about it at that level." 

Jones was told she would have to pump eight to twelve times a day, and at least once overnight, and so she decided to give it her all. 

It took her two weeks to get enough milk to put in a bottle, and ever since, she's been able to produce. She didn't even tell her friend she was doing it until she was about a week or so into it. 

"She was like, no, this is a lot of work," Jones said. "She had been trying to relactate, but she really just could not produce milk for herself. She was like, this is a lot, it's a big thing, I know what it is to relactate, it's stressful." 

But Jones said her friend deserved it, and she was happy to do it for her. 

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Although it's been a struggle on her body, and she's only been able to produce so much, Jones said it's been completely worth it, and she hopes to keep it going for another year or so, see who all she can donate milk to. She said she wishes she had known how important donating milk was when she was breastfeeding her children, as she had an oversupply of milk, so now she's going to hang on as hard and long as she can. 

"It is the most rewarding journey ever, like truly, it is," Jones said. "When you see the hard work that you're putting in come to fruition, and the tubes are getting fuller and fuller, it's just, there's a pride in it."

This week is World Breastfeeding Week, and for those interested in trying to relactate, she tells them to just keep going. 

She knows there are many women who start breastfeeding in the beginning, but quit because it's hard or painful, then regret it later on. She said relactating doesn't work for everybody but encourages mothers to keep trying.   

"My friend, she went to extreme measures and could not do it," Jones said. "Everyone's body is different, and if you try, if you breastfeed your baby for three days, or three months, or three years, either way, you breastfed your baby, and it's so cool to do." 

Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@gannett.com