I can only speak for myself when it comes to this topic.  I found the first few weeks the hardest.  After this, the sentiments you hear from breastfeeding moms like 'It doesn't hurt', 'It's not a big deal', 'It's super convenient to have perfectly warm, mixed, clean food at the ready' become true. 

But how to get through those initial issues of poor latching and my personal favourite – bleeding around the nipples?  For me and my kids, the latching improved with practice and wasn't much of an issue.  The bleeding however – sheesh.  I recall vividly my little one looking like a vampire with blood leaking out of the corner of her mouth during a few feeds – I kid you not! 

This was cured with the use of lanolin.  Lanolin is a wax-like substance produced by wool-bearing animals – like sheep. Because lanolin is natural, your baby can ingest it without you worrying about chemicals. Of course, if you have any wool-bearing animal allergies, you may need another solution. I found that using pure lanolin after every feed on both nipples (even the one I didn't have baby feed from) enabled them to heal in just a couple of days. No more cracking, redness, bleeding or bruising. Don't get me wrong, those days were torture but I knew they'd pass and that when they did we'd have the breastfeeding relationship that I always wanted.  And now I do.

For some great resources – see LaLeche's website.  Again, I can only speak for myself, but I thought this would be a real 'grassroots' kind of place with associated advice.  It was a wonderful resource and I would encourage anyone wanting to breastfeed or having troubles with breastfeeding to give them a chance to work their magic on your breastfeeding relationship with your baby.