"Don't Worry, It's a Boy"

How would a laboring mother on what was soon to become her deathbed feel were the midwife tell her in the midst of her contractions, "Don't worry, it's going to be a boy."

I can't imagine she would feel very good. 

That though is presumably what comforted Rachel when she faced impending death due to complications in her childbirth. 

As she struggled, with presumably no recourse, as she breathed her dying births the last thing she heard was either it's a boy, or it will be a boy, to which Rachel replied, "it is most surely the child of my suffering." 

What import does a boy have, or rather, what does a boy portend to the extent that it would take away the agonizing pain of a mother in the throes of labor? The Midrash writes that a boy symbolized life, and its continuation; when she heard it was to be a boy, she could regain new strength, and faith in the possibility of living; the problem is the three times the Tanakh records a woman struggling in labor they were all boys and each and every time, the woman died. 

This time it's more just food for thought, as any clear answer simply alludes me.