I was given so much support by all of the wonderful people in the bf/ff area that I really wanted to write my experience in the hope that it could help someone else especially if they were as close to giving up as I was.
Prior to giving birth I was 100% set on bf. After reading MN I expected BFing to be painful and knew it would take some time to get it right but wasn't too stressed out. DD was born on time and I started BFing right away. The nurses said my latch was fine even though I was complaining of how painful it was. I saw a BF councilor who seemed to suggest the same thing. Part of me just assumed this was the pain every MNer seemed to experience and I thought I just had to suck it up.
The pain got worse, I had open, raw cuts on my nipples, I was avoiding feeding my DD and dreading every feed. I was sobbing onto the MN bf forum and it was only through all the encouragement here that I kept going.
In the end I said to my DH that he had to get me some breast shields or we were swapping to formula. I read mixed thoughts on the shields here and online but I decided that it was better to use them than formula feed. They saved BF for me. The pain took a few days to totally go but she put on weight straight away, fed properly, I stopped dreading feeds and I actually began to enjoy BFing.
I kept halfheartedly trying to get DD to stop using them but it was so much easier and quicker to latch her on the shields.
Now she is 9 weeks and starting to dislike the shields. She sometimes just sucks the plastic instead of trying to feed. I'm just putting her on my breast more and more and BFing naturally has just clicked for her. She opens her mouth properly with little encouragement and now comes off when she is full.
Sorry this is a little long 
I just wanted to say a really, really big thank you to everyone who wrote and offered hugs, thoughts, encouragement and wisdom in those horrible early days and got me through it.
I really hope anyone close to giving up with pain reads this and finds a way though too.