Em Rusciano taking time off to deal with miscarriage

The comedian and radio personality spoke publicly about her miscarriage earlier this year in the hope it would help women process their own grief.

Rusciano told 2DayFM listeners on Wednesday that fellow comedian Celeste Barber will fill in for her for the rest of the week.

"I was supposed to give birth tomorrow," she said. "When you lose a baby, and I lost my baby at 14 weeks, no one really tells you what to do when the due date comes around. There's no manual. I was just gunna try to power through it [but] it's been looming on the horizon like a dark cloud."

The comedian said she will probably spend Thursday drinking gin and watching trashy movies. A sing-a-long to Barbara Streisand with her best friend is also on the cards.

"I think it's really important that I keep talking about it," she said. "I don't want to - every instinct in me is to shut up, make jokes and power on. But I've realised through this ordeal that one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage ... and women carry this pain and a gaping hole in them.

"I just want to let any woman know who's listening ... I don't know how you did it. I don't know how I'm going to do it. This week's been hard."

Rusciano has received a flood of support from fans, with many taking to social media to let the radio host know they are thinking of her.

"Just want to say thank you for talking about such important issues for women," one woman wrote.

"Em, I'm so sorry for your loss," wrote another. "My due date was last Friday after miscarriage at 11 weeks in May. Really tough week. Lots of love."