Guidance

Your baby carries a gene for sickle cell

Information for parents of babies who carry the sickle cell gene.

• From: NHS England
• Published: 19 August 2020
• Last updated: 8 January 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 8 January 2026

     Arabic translation added.

  2. 24 June 2025

     Changed lead organisation to NHS England. Removed reference to screening helpdesk.

  3. 2 December 2021

     Added plain A4 PDF version for printing, to provide for people unable to access this information online.

  4. 17 September 2020

     Added translations in Bengali, French and Urdu.

  5. 19 August 2020

     First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Sickle cell and thalassaemia screening: your baby carries a gene for sickle cell

Ref: PHE publications gateway number GW-1519

HTML

Sickle cell and thalassaemia screening: your baby carries a gene for sickle cell (for print)

PDF, 252 KB, 4 pages

আপনার বাচ্চা সিকেল সেল-এর একটি জিন বহন করে (Bengali)

HTML

Details

Guidance for parents of babies found to carry the sickle cell gene following their newborn blood spot screening test.

This information is available in A4 PDF format (in English) to print out and provide for people who cannot access digital information. For more information, see the ‘order printed leaflets’ section of our guidance on how to access and order leaflets.

Translations are available in Bengali, French and Urdu. The Bengali translation can be found below the English version above. See the links in the top right of this page for the French and Urdu translations.