Stillmothers are brain dead mothers sustained in Capital Knot City ICU, whose babies have been taken to be used by Bridges operatives as Bridge babies.
Overview[]
Stillmothers are brain dead mothers which, following the trauma suffered, are inserted into a suspension capsule full of liquid, in the shape of a sarcophagus, in order to be able to remove via a cesarean section the fetus at the seventh month of gestation and use it as a Bridge Baby. A stillmother's womb facilitates a connection between the world of the dead and a BB, granting the operatives the ability to sense and detect BTs when physically connected. To function properly, Bridge Babies are kept in portable pods which simulate the conditions of a stillmother's womb, as they will cease to function properly if they feel they are not in such a womb. Periodically, the environmental conditions of the capsule must be updated by inserting it in a special incubator that synchronizes it with the stillmother's womb at a given moment, taking the data in order to keep the deception longer.
History[]
Although many cases of braindead mothers were recorded in modern history, the first registered "stillmother" existed shortly before the Death Stranding, when a surgeon specializing in caesarean sections tried to save a seventh month fetus suffering from bradycardia from a brain-dead woman's body, placed on life support. With the incision made without incident, the surgeon planned to remove the fetus from the womb and immediately place it in a NICU, and for this he had to cut the umbilical cord. When the surgeon touched the umbilical cord - which connected the baby to the world of the dead - for the first time a human layed eyes on a BT, the following contact the very first modern Voidout.
The accident led to the start of a series of experiments, known as the “BB Experiments", in a Manhattan government facility in total secrecy until a massive voidout destroyed the island, killing the then-acting President who was witnessing the experiment.
The second case of a succesfull extraction of a fetus from a stillmother where Lisa Bridges and her son. Clifford Unger, Lisa's husband, agreed to let the scientist use his son to research BB tech, in hope for a cure for his brain-dead wife, but was lied to by President Strand about the conditions and consequences. Soon after learning the President's intentions, Clifford attempted to flee with the baby but where both fataly shot during the escape. Cliff dies, but his son was saved by Amelie and brought back to life, an act that precipitates the Death Stranding.
After all this, information about the BB experiments were made top secret and was mostly expunged from the Chiral Network, leaving the people with the belief that BBs are only a tool for detecting BTs, and that stillmothers serve as an anchor for them.
Notes[]
- The concept of stillmothers is similar to that of Maternal somatic support after brain death, a condition that occurs when a brain dead patient is pregnant and their body is kept alive to deliver a fetus.
- Like the BB pod, the stillmother capsule design is inspired by Ancient Egyptian sarcophagi.
- In the Japanese version, its Japanese term is spelt in furigana as 脳死母 (Literally means "Brain Dead Mothers")