From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfoetalfoe‧tal, fetal /ˈfiːtl/ adjective [only before noun] belonging or related to a foetus a test to detect foetal abnormalities
Examples from the Corpus
foetal• Recently I treated her for a sexually transmitted disease with metronidazole, which is known to cause foetal abnormalities in rats.• A large brain relative to body size is an almost universal foetal characteristic of vertebrates, and certainly of mammals.• Some drugs are known to cause foetal damage and should not be taken during pregnancy.• Physicians were obliged to inform abortion patients about foetal development and the alternatives to terminating the pregnancy.• This one is about three hours old and still lying in the foetal position in which it emerged from the egg.• Some even resort in the middle of a battle to lying motionless in a foetal position.• The spasms nearly always cause targets to curl into a foetal position.• And oxygen deficiency during the foetal stage may inhibit brain development and size at birth, with or without other defect. 