(thread) This is what someone looks like when they have a 4-6 week old baby. Exhausted, hadn't slept more than 2 hours a night in weeks. Bloated. Sore from my c-section and still not cleared for exercise. Kid wouldn't sleep anywhere but on my lap. Nursing every 1-2 hrs.

When a recruiter reaches out and I ask about family leave benefits and they tell me they only offer 6 weeks for birthing mothers, I feel very sad. This tells me that they don't *truly* want to offer a supportive workplace for women.

Even if you're not planning to have a child - ask about maternity & paternity benefits. This stuff matters -- it means diversity. It means work/life balance. It means your studio supports cultivating careers for the long-term, not just the hungry early 20-year-olds.

Studios don't even realize how many qualified diverse candidates they're missing out on by having maternity policies like this. They assume what they're doing is working, but it's not. Women in games have backchannels, and we talk about which companies are supportive.

Relying on state disability is a poor solution. Most US states (even CA) don't give you anywhere near 100% of your salary. Unless you have a working partner bankrolling you or you save for years, you may not be able to afford losing 20-50% of your income just to stay home.

6 weeks is barely enough time for newborns to be old enough for licensed daycare facilities. Many start at 8 or 12 weeks. Getting a nanny to cover the difference is prohibitively expensive, and many of us in games move away from family for jobs.

Partners should also be getting more than 2 weeks of time. The first month is a blur -- and mothers need support. In the case of c-sections or birth trauma, they need a ton of assistance with basic care activities for themselves and the baby.

All of this assumes a healthy full-term baby. If the baby was born early, or spends time in the NICU, or has health problems -- 6 weeks is certainly *NOT ENOUGH* time. No one should have to burn all their PTO to care for their freshly born babies.

I also know it's privileged to complain about 6 weeks when so many industries don't get *any* time beyond their PTO. This is one of the worst things about America, the only first world country with no federal family leave benefits. It's gross.

Some studios are doing good things. Look to Zynga -- they offer 6 full months for moms and 3 months for partners. This is the kind of thing any large studio should be doing.

This is a subject that I'm passionate about (clearly) and I'm going to be working on a side project that I hope will make companies more transparent about their family leave and encourage them to do better.

Also, this isn't about any studio in particular. Sadly, it's about most of them.