The mother in the narrative is requesting to be informed. A pamphlet does not inform, although it may. Face-to-face conversation has the opportunity for an asker to ask questions for an authority on the matter to answer.
However, more to the point: is this pamphlet science or marketing? Many such pamphlets about medicine blur that line quite well...
The mother in the narrative is not asking to be informed, she is asking for a specific guarantee that the doctor cannot give. It would be like a client saying, "give me a guarantee of 100% uptime or I'm going with someone else," and refusing to read your literature about how many "9s" you can provide.
nah, the doc is equivocating because he CAN'T give the woman a 100% guarantee (would make a nice malpractice suit if something did happen to the child).
However, more to the point: is this pamphlet science or marketing? Many such pamphlets about medicine blur that line quite well...