Actually, timing your contractions lets you know the difference between "oh, baby's coming soon" and "get me to the hospital NOW".

As long as the contractions aren't coming too close together, you don't exactly need to go to the hospital to prepare for actual labor.
On that note, I don't know how people can expect everyone go through with pregnancy, or why people try to insist that they know what's best for everyone.

Everyone in my family keeps bugging me about when I am going to get married and give them a grandchild/great-grandchild/niece/etc, when they know I have absolutely no interest in sex or having a child and that I can't STAND children of any kind.