It has been decades since I've thought about this. Someone please refresh my memory.

How far apart should contractions be before taking a woman to the hospital? Five minutes? Ten?

Assume a young, healthy woman on her first pregnancy with the hospital nearby.

If the contractions are 5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute, for 1 hour or longer she needs to go to the hospital.

Thank you...

Can she afford to wait until her water breaks? Maybe for 1st babies.

My current gf has been pregnant three times (none of them mine, sadly) and says there's no need to go to the hospital unless the contractions are less than 10 minutes apart. However, if the woman is carrying large or there are other issues, it's a good idea to go earlier than that for extra monitoring. Her first son was massive (and she was only 16 when she had him) and it just "felt right" to her to check in to the hospital when she was first feeling contractions.

(October 6, 2021, 10:52 pm)Thebige Can she afford to wait until her water breaks? Maybe for 1st babies.

Maybe not.  The timing of the water breaking is not consistent.  Sometimes it happens super early, even before contractions begin; other times it happens really late.  Sometimes it never even breaks on its own, and the OB has to do it themselves with something that looks like a crochet hook.  My wife's water only broke once in three pregnancies.

The 5-1-1 rule exists for two big reasons:

1.  If you don't meet the conditions of the rule, it keeps you from showing up at the hospital too early only to waste everyone's time and get sent back home.  
2.  If you do meet the conditions of the rule, it usually gives you time to set your birth plan in motion: driving to hospital/birthing center, waiting for the midwife to show up, preparing for homebirth, etc.  This is especially important if you're getting an epidural; if labor has progressed past a certain point then they may not give it to you, or it may not kick in in time.

So... if you wait until your water breaks then you run the risk of delivering unmedicated on your bathroom floor or in the back of a Prius.

Every woman’s different too. My manager just recently gave birth and she was having contractions all day the day of, worked all day, didn’t start timing them until 5pm and by 11pm baby was born

My wifes didn't start until her water broke.

Normally you count from start of one to the start of the next one. Normally you go to the hospital when they are less than 5 min appart (normally every 2-3 min) for an hour (if they don't ease up after 2 glass of water, resting or taking a bath). That's the rule of thumbs. That's what we say to patients before going to labor and delivery.

If she meets the 5-1-1 rule, is she considered to be "in labor" at that point or is it just still contractions?

My wife's water only broke once in three pregnancies. The OB used the amnio hook the other two times. She called me at work at about 10 AM and said it was time to go. I took her in, but the doctor said to go home. She said, "I hope you don't have dinner plans." We went to a coffee shop for some pie. While I was paying the check, her water broke.