Ex-NFL cheerleader studying Black maternal crisis dies giving birth

Krystal Anderson, seen with her husband Clayton Anderson, died not long after childbirth.& Credit:& GoFundME Posted in Krystal Anderson’s death shows Black women are at serious risk when it’s time to deliver their babies — regardless of social status. & by& Jennifer Porter Gore & When she died during childbirth, Krystal Anderson became the latest reminder that Black women are at the center of a global maternal health crisis.& Krystal Anderson seemed to move easily between two worlds as an NFL cheerleader and a college-educated computer scientist. For nearly a decade, she split her time cheering and dancing for the& Kansas City Chiefs& and her career job as a software engineer for a medical tech company.& Her passion for cheerleading and dance, friends say, was exceeded only by Anderson’s desire to help solve the riddle of disproportionately high rates of Black women who die during childbirth. Indeed, she won a patent for software that can assess a woman’s risk of postpartum hemorrhage.& RELATED:& How Maternity Care Deserts Put Black Moms at Risk Tragically, however, Anderson — a married, expectant mom herself — fell victim to the very problem she tried to solve. She died of sepsis on March 20, shortly...