EPA and DHA

I'm taking nutrution as a pre req for the LVN program  we were talking today and my question is if a women is pregnant and doesn't eat fish does her body automaticly produce EPA and DHA?

[Alex Dobrody]

EPA and DHA are produced by the body from a shorter-chain omega-3 fatty acid called ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), found in flax oil, Gold of pleasure (Camelina) oil and some green leafy veggies.
However, the rate of this conversion differs from one person to the next, so don't rely on it 100%. If you are concerned about mercury, eat smaller fish (sardines are good) - they don't accumulate much mercury. Two other options are to take molecularly distilled fish or cod liver oil or an algae supplement called OmegaZen3 or something like that, although this last one only contains DHA and no EPA.