I had been promoted into a director’s role prior to announcing my pregnancy. But when I told my boss I was pregnant his response was, “No wonder you wanted to get promoted,” suggesting he thought it had been part of my plan to secure a higher salary to improve my maternity pay.

On my return to work after seven months’ leave I was not allowed to go back to my previous role. They had already recruited a man to replace me and I was to report to him and given the responsibilities of a sales manager (a role I had held five years previously). I was removed from the directors’ meetings (despite still holding a director’s title and pay grade). Their argument for doing this was that I would not be able to focus as much as I needed to on my role as I had to leave at 5pm two days a week to collect my baby from childcare. After six months, I was presented with a settlement agreement and asked to leave.