Giving birth boosts your creativity

At least that's been my experience.

While I was pregnant I wrote about giving up my lifelong dream of being a published book author. I didn't have the time, the energy, or the ability to work towards it.

This time of my life was for building a family. Other things would have to wait indefinitely. I was resigned to the fact, and although God knows I love this family raising business I did feel a sense of loss.

"I'm not going to write a book this year," I wrote. "I may never write one."

Then I had my baby, my fourth one, and realised I was wrong.

After those tricky final months of pregnancy it felt exhilarating to suddenly have my body back to myself, and my mind freed of anxiety about the birth.

I was full of energy - physical and creative. I used the middle of the night feeding times to come up with story ideas and research publishers' websites on my Blackberry. Within a couple of weeks I had made up a dummy of my first children's book!

And I started baking again - orange semolina syrup cake, chocolate chip biscuits, pancakes.

Basically I felt like myself again and my mind was brimming with ideas, plans and projects.

Of course now that our little one is almost five weeks old I'm now slowing down a little as chronic sleep deprivation sets in. I now find myself dozing off during night time feeds, not inventing grandiose plans!

Still, it's given me great hope to realise that I've still got that old creative and ambitious 'spark', it was only being rested for a while.