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Here are my tips to get breastfeeding off to a good start:

Have skin-to-skin after your baby is born and for the first two weeks (that's a few hours of your baby being naked/in a nappy on your bare chest). If it's not possible for you to do it have your partner have this special time to ensure their instincts are not lost.
Try biological nurturing - lay back and have your laying on you, on his.her tummy. Your baby should bob it's head and crawl around until they find your nipple and latch themselves on. There's a great DVD that demonstrates this : Delivery and Self Attachment.
Don't rush your baby, allow them to sleep on you for skin-to-skin time and have patience for baby to find your nipple. (my baby took 3/4 an hour to find my nipple when allowing her do it it on her own, once she found it she set up camp though!)
Make sure in the early days that you protect you and your baby from too many visitors, have one a day if necessary and limit their time with you to an hour, two maximum. It helps to allow your baby to lie on your bare chest in just a nappy for skin-to-skin.
Perhaps don't wash your chest in 'smellies' for the first 6 days to allow your baby to get to know the smell of you and your breast milk.
Check your latch with a breastfeeding expert.
If you express your milk, be aware of thrush
Have your baby checked for tongue-tie (read more about this in our tongue tie section in Articles and under the Babies section on our website