The main purpose of this study was to analyse the relationship between demographic, socioeconomic and barrier factors, and the maternal health behavior of hilltribe women who had children aged under 1 year. Maternal health behavior defined in this study covered antenatal care (ANC), birth attendance and postnatal care (PNC). Data used in this study was taken from the “Hilltribes Health Survey 1997”, conducted by the Ministry of Public Health. The 604 women were eligible for the analysis. Research results indicated that among the total sampled women only 46.9 percent had at least 4 ANC visits, about 61.7 percent of the deliveries were attended by health personnel or trained traditional birth attendance, and only 28.4 percent of them received at least 3 postnatal care visits. These percentages were much lower than the targets set by the national maternal health plan. After analysing relationship between demographic, socio-economic and barrier factors and the maternal health behavior of hilltribe women, it was found that. 1. Determinants of differentials in antenatal care were ethnics, education, occupation, health insurance and distance to health center. There was a tendency that younger women visited ANC (4 times) in a higher proportion than older women. 2. Determinants of differentials in birth attendance were age, ethnics, education, occupation, health insurance, and distance to health center, while household size showed a curvilinear relationship with birth attendance. 3. Determinants of differentials in postnatal care were occupation, health insurance and distance to health center. However, women who spoke a MON-KHEMR language (Lua, Htin and Khamu) had a tendency to visit PNC (3 times) in a higher proportion than other ethnics woman, and educated women had a tendency to visit PNC (3 times) in a higher proportion than uneducated women. In addition, family income had little effect on maternal health behavior of hilitribe women.
