What was it like, returning to work post-baby from maternity leave? Did the icy finger of dread work its way down your spine as you opened up your inbox, or slipped back into your uniform? Did you have to take your seat alongside your "temporary" - perhaps male - replacement, unsure of your place in the organisation? You're not alone.

This week, London law firm Slater & Gordon published the results of a survey looking at the lives of working mothers. The figures are pretty stark: six out of 10 mothers think their careers were derailed after they became pregnant, believing that they were denied opportunities and had to work to prove themselves all over again once they returned to work. Nearly half of mothers polled said less maternity leave would have meant they were taken more seriously, and 60% also said they felt their career options were limited as soon as they declared their pregnancy.

The good news doesn't end there, either. The the same study spoke to 500 managers; a third admitted that maternity leave and issues of childcare would make them employ a man in his 20s or 30s over women in the same age group. Forty per cent would fret about hiring a woman who already has a child, or hiring a mother for a senior role.

I spoke to one woman - who wanted to remain anonymous - and had been working in IT for a small firm for about four months . When she became pregnant, she told her boss, but then subsequently lost the baby. After returning to work following her miscarriage, she was promptly sacked. She says: "I was basically fired for having a miscarriage." The feeling was that she would get pregnant again and therefore would not make a good employee. "Their attitude changed entirely. One guy just stopped talking to me."

The narrative of young women being overlooked in favour of young men is one she is familiar with. "I found it incredibly difficult to find jobs in my 20s," she says. She was married at the age of 21, and was asked to disclose her marital status on forms in the various jobs she held. Her bosses claimed they were firing her for "gross misconduct". She was saved by the fact that she was studying law part-time; the company ultimately settled the day before the case was due to be heard in court. "My confidence was destroyed. My career was affected - I thought that company was where I would be for a long time," she says. "And it destroyed my confidence in employers. That firm will probably not readily employ women."

Now, she works for the NHS, who she says, "are great with maternity leave."

As it stands, the government mandates up to 52 weeks of statutory maternity leave, with Statutory Maternity Pay (for eligible workers), which amounts to 90% of average weekly earnings for the first six weeks. For those who do not qualify for SMP, there is a Maternity Allowance (usually for self-employed women), which guarantees payment for 39 weeks.

Even so, it is not the maternity leave that boggles the mind so much as the attitudes revealed by these employers: a third of the managers surveyed said that women returning to work after a baby were simply not as good as their jobs. Contrast this with the third of mothers who believed they were better employees after their children despite the difficulties they faced. Contrary to the popular narrative, women do not knowingly choose to work under these difficult circumstances - they just sometimes have no say in the matter.

It is easy to cast aside the positions of one or two dinosaur bosses, whose ideas regarding women in the workplace are old-fashioned. But the reported scale of it makes for sobering reading. While the law ostensibly protects employed women who get pregnant, it is a lot harder to prove that your boss has discriminated against you. One thing this survey proves is that it is likely not "all in your mind" – here, other women confirm the unspoken bias that can stalk them in the workplace.

Most discouragingly of all, though, is that even if you do manage to pin down the charge of discrimination to a single or series of acts, employment tribunal fees may well be what deters you from taking it any further. A report, What Price Justice?, found that between January and March 2014, women pursuing pregnancy discrimination cases had dropped by a quarter compared with the same quarter in 2013. Two separate studies - from the University of Bristol and the TUC - have shown that the fees (which individuals now have to shoulder themselves) have led to a decline in cases brought forward..

Does any of this sound familiar to you? How did you get back into the swing of things upon your return to work after maternity leave? How can women navigate the post-baby workplace better? Please share your stories and suggestions below.