The 29-year-old star took a break from shooting the Winnie Mandela biopic Winnie to return to the US because she wanted to see her 19-month-old son David.
Hudson's mother Darnell Donnerson was murdered in October 2008 along
with her brother Jason Hudson and seven-year-old nephew Julian. Hudson said she took the one-day trip home because it's what her mother would have done.
She said: "You know what? My momma would do it for me, so I needed to go and see about my child, and I hopped on that plane. That's things my mother would have done. Everything I do, I do from example, like, 'What she would have done for us.'"
Jennifer - who is engaged to David's father, professional wrestler David Otunga - admitted she constantly thinks about her late mother and says her parenting style is heavily influenced by the way she herself was brought up.
Asked if she considered her mother's reaction to situations when parenting, she said in an interview on TV show Good Morning America: "All the time, definitely. That's the example, that's what I go by, like 'What would my mom do? How did she do it?'
"Even when I'm bouncing him on my knee, you know?"