Safe fish while you are pregnant and/or breastfeeding

The following lists are taken from the Environmental Working Group’s recommendations:
(please note that many other sites and lists advise that tuna is safe for pregnant women to eat - think hard about this, try the tuna calculator for more info)
What if you don’t want to eat fish?  Walnuts and flaxseeds are two of the very best sources of Omega 3 fats essential for your baby’s good brain development.

Avoid If Pregnant

How many servings of tuna should you eat?

Use the EWG Tuna Calculator to find out.
Shark
Swordfish
King mackerel
Tilefish
Tuna steaks
Canned tuna
Sea bass
Gulf Coast Oysters
Marlin
Halibut
Pike
Walleye
White croaker
Largemouth bass

Eat No More Than One Serving From This List Per Month

Mahi mahi
Blue mussel
Eastern oyster
Cod
Pollock
Great Lakes salmon
Gulf Coast blue crab
Channel catfish (wild)
Lake whitefish

Lowest In Mercury

Blue crab (mid-Atlantic)
Croaker
Fish Sticks
Flounder (summer)
Haddock
Trout (farmed)
Salmon (wild Pacific)
Shrimp *
* Shrimp fishing and farming practices have raised serious environmental concerns.
** Farmed catfish have low mercury levels but may contain PCBs in amounts of concern for pregnant women.

Delayed (or more correctly, physiologic) Cord Clamping

If you want to wait until the cord has finished its job and delivered all of your baby’s blood after the birth, you are going to have to be proactive.
First, do your research.  Here is a great blog post explaining how a cord works.  Really understand why you believe this is necessary so that you can communicate that effectively to your doctor (homebirth midwives routinely delay clamping).  Make sure this request is in your birth plan and you have discussed it thoroughly with your provider and partner.
At the time of birth, make sure your doula and partner remind the doctor NOT TO CLAMP.  Routinely, doctors clamp almost immediately after the baby is born, before it’s even on your chest.  It’s a force of habit to clamp fast, so someone needs to remind in the moment.
Then make sure your partner actually feels for the pulse of the cord.  This is easy to do.  He simply puts his fingers gently around it and feels for a pulse.  It’s safe to clamp AFTER there is no longer a pulse.  The cord will also look empty, clearer, and feel less rigid (because there is hardly any blood left in it at this point).  There is no reason, if the cord is truly done, to even clamp.  You could simply cut.  Your baby is now completely born.  The placenta will follow shortly.

Some doctors pay lip service to delaying.  I’ve seen doctors pinch off the cord with their fingers (down below where the parents can see) to stop the flow so that it “looks” finished.  I’ve also seen them say it’s finished and clamp when it’s obviously not finished at all.  Please notice in the above birth that the cord is full of blood, that the vial the doctor is filling is full of blood.  This doctor had said the cord was finished pulsing.  It could not have been.
Why????  They must be in a hurry.  Waiting for the cord to finish takes more time (not a lot, but some).   Do your research; you will find it is safer for your baby to wait, safer for you to wait.  I’ve seen doctors totally respect this request and just slow down too.  One local doctor says he delays clamping just to give baby and mother more time before nurses intervene with newborn assessments.
About cord clamping and cutting:
From an obstetrician:  Why do obstetricians and midwives still rush to clamp the cord?  11-10
a 12/10 review of the research about cord clamping
from BellyBelly.com, an article that outlines the benefits point by point, and answers why doctors don’t wait
an article from Dr. Sarah Buckley about 3rd stage
World Health Org on cord clamping
a science study about delaying
another from academic ob/gyn
5 good reasons to delay, from a homebirth midwife
Are doctors causing infant brain damage by immediately clamping the cord?