Brinsley Animal Rescue co-founder John Beresford said the lengths that people would go to rescue wildlife "is just fantastic".
He said: "Tragically the mother was hit and all the ducklings were crowding around the dying mother in the central reservation.
"Quite spontaneously, some HGVs slowed right down and created a rolling roadblock and this kind lady managed to cross over with a bucket from a builder who also stopped to scoop the ducklings up to safety."
The ducklings were placed into groups with other young ducks, meaning the charity had more than 40 orphans to raise.
Two of the family from the M1 were released at an undisclosed lake over the weekend, with the final 10 let out on to the water on Tuesday.
Mr Beresford said volunteers would continue to check on their progress in the coming weeks.
"Whenever we release any wild animals, we always think of the best place we can possibly release them," he said.
"Ideally, we release animals back to where they've come from but absolutely we're not going to release them back to a dangerous location like the M1.
"It's an area that we do regularly visit, so we can keep an eye on them to make sure they're all doing fine.
"This time of year, it's extremely busy, we receive probably between 60 and 70 phone calls a day.
"We do as much as we possibly can. Stories like this really do lift us."
