The most critical period for piglet survival is the first three days after birth. The risk of piglet mortality is increased if the piglets have a lower degree of maturity at birth, resulting from intra-uterine growth retardation. Fetal development is highly dependent on the functioning of the placenta, and is accelerated in the later stages of gestation. That’s why we decided to study the placental metabolism at the end of gestation. To better understand the relationship between fetal development and piglet maturity at birth, we chose to compare 14 Large White (LW) sows, representing the European commercial breed that is highly affected by piglet mortality before weaning, with 14 Meishan (MS) sows, representing the Asian breed with lower piglet mortality. All sows were inseminated with mixed semen from both breeds and develop purebred and crossbred fetuses. Placental samples were collected from 224 fetuses at 90 or 110 days of gestation (dg). Hydrophilic metabolites were extracted and 1H-NMR spectra were acquired. Raw spectra were processed using the ASICS R package to identify and quantify 48 metabolites. PLS-DAs were performed at 90 dg and 110 dg. Both separated the LW and MS purebred fetuses on the 1st latent variable (LV), explaining 22% and 16% of the variability, respectively. The crossbred fetus were intermediate. There were 19 and 21 metabolites important (VIP > 1) for the 1st LV at 90 and 110 dg, respectively. The metabolites were mainly involved in amino acid metabolism and in energy metabolism. Metabolites were then correlated with morphological parameters. In particular, placental myo-inositol concentration was negatively correlated with fetal body mass index (BMI, r = -0.4) and positively correlated with fetal brain weight/body weight ratio (r = 0.4), indicating stunted growth. In conclusion, differences in metabolism between the fetal genotypes may be involved in their differences in survival at birth.