Whether you should wait until the contractions are 4-5 minutes apart and the pros and cons is really up to the individual patient. If it's your first child and your labor can take a long time, maybe even 24 hours. So to wait longer, even closer than that, maybe 2-3 minutes apart, when your water breaks, then it's time to go to the hospital. If you've had a few children before and you deliver very quickly, maybe a few hours, maybe even less than an hour, then you might even go to the hospital even sooner, maybe even the first onset of labor so you don't have to deliver at home or deliver on the way to the hospital. The disadvantage of coming to the hospital when you're not really quite in labor yet, especially with the first child, is you often are sent home. And you might feel discouraged and upset, but that's what happens often in labor and delivery.