DEATH is scary, but it’s not nearly as frightening as birth.

Motherhood, at least the way it is depicted on cable networks like MTV, TLC and even FitTV, is a menacing, grotesque fate that is mostly ill-timed. Procreation comes either way too soon, ruining the prom and summer beach plans of teenage girls on MTV shows like “16 and Pregnant” or “Teen Mom 2,” or way too late. Women who postpone pregnancy often pay a price on these shows with childlessness or costly, emotionally fraught procedures like in vitro fertilization or surrogacy.

And then comes the still more alarming prospect of multiple births, including the six 2-year-olds racing across their parents’ living room on the WeTV reality show “Raising Sextuplets.” Or infanticide. “I was so in the mindset to say O.K., kill the baby, it will get rid of the problem,” a mother who fantasized about dropping her newborn from the roof said on “Postpartum Nightmares,” on FitTV. (The channel will be renamed Discovery Fit & Health in February, but much of the programming will still be spooky.)

Even the Style network has cautionary tales: The first season of “Giuliana & Bill” began as a cheery reality show about celebrity newlyweds but turned into a harrowing docu-soap opera about miscarriage after in vitro fertilization.

Horror makes for easy entertainment, of course, so it’s hardly surprising that the maternity ward would be milked for bloodcurdling thrills in the way of weddings (“Bridezillas” and “The Best of Bridezillas 2”), weather (“Storm Stories”) or travel (“Locked Up Abroad”).