diff --git a/doc/policy/maintenance.md b/doc/policy/maintenance.md
index 7a30ba5fa04fd9d3a2792eebebdaf5a09d75e053..82ed4f7c99bdba3df241524f60e52ee2fdcb1dd9 100644
--- a/doc/policy/maintenance.md
+++ b/doc/policy/maintenance.md
@@ -130,9 +130,14 @@ the eventual risk to stability. We always address high and critical security iss
 
 ### Backporting to older releases
 
-Backporting to more than one stable release is usually reserved for [security fixes](#patch-releases).
-In some cases, however, we may need to backport a bug fix to more than one stable
-release, depending on the severity of the bug.
+Backporting to more than one stable release is usually reserved for the following cases.
+
+#### Security fixes
+
+Security fixes are backported to the latest released stable version and the previous two monthly releases,
+as part of [patch releases](#patch-releases).
+
+#### High severity bugs, or bugs with large customer impact
 
 The decision on whether backporting a change is performed is done at the discretion of the
 [current release managers](https://about.gitlab.com/community/release-managers/),
@@ -156,6 +161,12 @@ requests are automatically turned down.
 To request backporting to more than one stable release for consideration, raise an issue in the
 [release/tasks](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release/tasks/-/issues/new?issuable_template=Backporting-request) issue tracker.
 
+#### Changes required to keep stable branch pipelines successful
+
+Backporting of fixes (for example, flaky spec fixes) that help keep stable branch pipelines successful
+is important because it prevents future security releases from being
+blocked by failing pipelines.
+
 ## More information
 
 You may also want to read our: