The cheerleaders for reigning Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs will have a noticeable addition to their uniforms this season. They will be wearing cuffs with the initials “KA” emblazoned on them in rhinestones.
The cuffs are an homage to former Chiefs cheerleader Krystal Anderson, who died in March due to complications from childbirth. Anderson, who was on the squad from 2006 to 2011 and 2013 to 2016, was just 40 years old, according to the Chiefs website. The organization also added Anderson’s initials to the sideline padding near the 10-yard line on the field where Anderson worked for the past seven years as a member of the squad’s alumni crew. “She left a mark on the world that we’ll never forget,” reads an Chiefs Cheer Instagram post announcing the squad’s plans to honor her memory.
“She was such a light in life and in relationships, and the girl loved her sparkle,” Stephanie Judah, the Chiefs’ director of entertainment teams, said in a statement. “There could never be too many rhinestones, beads or sequins. If she could wear the most sparkly dress ever, she would. You could never outdo her sparkle.”
A new Chiefs Cheer post added this week showed Anderson’s niece, a junior Chiefs cheerleader, wearing an embellished armband of her own while posing next to the sideline padding paying tribute to her late aunt.
Anderson died from cardiac arrest caused by sepsis, a life-threatening medical emergency that happens when the immune system has an extreme response to an infection, after she gave birth to a stillborn child. (A stillbirth is the loss of a baby after 20 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.) Anderson previously experienced a stillbirth in 2022 and had a miscarriage scare in December 2023.
Anderson’s husband, Clayton Anderson, tells Yahoo Life that the tribute is special to his family. “It means the world to me that the Chiefs organization and the cheerleaders are honoring my beautiful wife in such a meaningful and fitting way,” he says. “She loved being on the sidelines at Arrowhead [Stadium], and she was always sparkling while she was spreading joy and cheering the team on.”
Clayton calls his wife “an amazing woman who would cheer on everyone she knew and so many others that she didn’t.” He added, “I’m grateful I got to be her person.”
Clayton has also been outspoken about the Black maternal mortality crisis in the U.S., and how it may have influenced his wife’s care. He has expressed concern that his wife, who was Black, wasn’t able to see a maternal fetal medicine doctor or high-risk maternity specialist until she reached week 14 of her pregnancy, despite her history with pregnancy loss. “Expecting somebody who’s had a loss to go four weeks in between seeing their care providers … that’s the same protocol that’s done for a 23-year-old that’s very healthy,” he previously told ABC News. “It can’t be a one-size-fits-all.”
Here’s where things stand with the Black maternal mortality crisis, according to ob-gyns.
What is the Black maternal mortality crisis?
At baseline, the U.S. maternal mortality rate is the highest of any high-income country, according to the Commonwealth Fund. In 2022, 817 women died of maternal causes in the U.S., according to CDC data, amounting to 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. Rates appear to be decreasing but at a slow pace. The maternal mortality rate for 2021 was 32.9 per 100,000 live births.
But the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is highest for Black women, who have more than double the rate of any other race or ethnicity in the country.
“The overall statistics do not tell the whole story,” Karen McDonnell, associate professor at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, tells Yahoo Life. Per the CDC, the Black maternal mortality ratio was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births and was significantly higher than rates for white (19.0), Hispanic (16.9) and Asian (13.2) women. This disparity “has been consistent over time,” she adds.
Dr. Jessica Shepherd, an ob-gyn in Texas and founder of Sanctum Med + Wellness, tells Yahoo Life that there are “so many layers” to the crisis. “Mainly, systemic racism is the reason, but there is also racial discrimination when being seen by a health care professional, as well as being denied or delayed access to health care services and not being referred to specialists,” she says.
But other factors may play a role too, like historical exposure to racial trauma, discrimination and marginalization; systematic racism and implicit bias within the health care system; the possibility of being uninsured; reduced access to reproductive health care services and socioeconomic factors, Shepherd says.
Dr. Kamilah Dixon, an ob-gyn at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, points out that the crisis impacts all Black expectant moms. “These racial disparities persist even if a Black birthing person has a higher level of education than a white birthing person, which can be used as a proxy to access,” she tells Yahoo Life.
The leading causes of maternal mortality include mental health conditions, high blood pressure disorders linked to pregnancy, cardiomyopathy (a disease of the heart muscle), infection, bleeding and blood vessel blockages, Dixon says.
How can expectant moms get the care they need?
Dixon says it’s “extremely important” that expectant mothers find health care providers that they trust and look for a care team early. “I have seen many more patients accessing my care in the preconception period to make sure their health is optimized before birth and to make sure they feel comfortable with the health team they have for their pregnancy,” she says. “If you do not feel heard in your care, you can transfer to a different provider to get the care you need.”
It can also be helpful to have a support person who can continue to help you advocate for yourself, Dixon says. In addition, Shepherd recommends that expectant mothers reach out to advocacy programs like Black Mamas Matter, March of Dimes and Every Mother Counts for help.
But McDonnell stresses that it’s important the responsibility isn’t just put on the women who are receiving care. “This needs to be a collective response,” she says.
What can people do to combat this crisis?
Doctors say that spreading the word about the crisis is key. “Bringing awareness to this issue is important, and driving the focus to the state and national level to ensure that all birthing people have access to the best health care will have the ability to make the greatest impact,” Dixon says.
It can also be helpful to diversify the workforce, as well as to support maternal mortality review committees (MMRCs), which are multidisciplinary groups that get together at the state or local level to review deaths that occur during or within a year of the end of pregnancy, Dixon says. ”The continued effort by the MMRCs has been great to demonstrate these disparities and to begin to shift focus to interventions to make it so more birthing people can live to see their babies grow up,” Dixon says.
Overall, Clayton says he hopes that the Chiefs armbands and sideline initials will inspire others. “I hope that when people see her tribute they are reminded of how she lived — joyfully and purposefully … and do it with sparkles, of course,” he says. “I hope that this will encourage more people to live like Krystal lived and to spread joy in their communities.”