Having a good birth experience is important to women and their families, but providing a positive experience for patients is also of critical importance to clinicians. Yet much of the maternity-related research currently being conducted nationally focuses on avoiding adverse incidents, rather than promoting positive birth events. Recently, health policy researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health took a different approach to maternity care research by analyzing the way women describe their birth experiences as well as their socio-demographic characteristics and the type of care they received during labor and delivery (e.g., induction, epidural, cesarean). The goal was to better understand what makes a positive birth experience.