Patients with catatonia may experience an extreme loss of motor skill or even constant hyperactive motor activity. Catatonic patients will sometimes hold rigid poses for hours and will ignore any external stimuli. Patients with catatonic excitement can suffer from exhaustion if not treated. Patients may also show stereotyped, repetitive movements.
maybe one or the other.
More likely a dissociative reaction of some type - couldn’t stand the grief of the loss of her child and split it off to avoid it, continued on as though child’s death hadn’t happened....