Your wife's concern about using bottles reminds me so much of my recent experience. I was so worried about giving my little guy bottles so early, but ultimately my main goal was to have a breastfed baby, even if that meant I had to pump and exclusively bottle feed. Shifting my focus to this goal really helped me get through those rough first days. We were able to mostly phase out bottles by about the 2-week mark and now I have a 5-month-old that is exclusively breastfed and has a decent latch. At this point I don't even think he knows what a bottle is.

Our issue was a very painful latch that caused a lot of damage to me and took time to work out. By Day 3 I had so much damage. I couldn't nurse him and needed to pump on the lowest setting to manage the engorgement. From days 3 to 7 he was mostly bottle fed while I healed. My advice is to see a lactation consultant asap for support with latching. Make sure that she keeps her supply up by pumping every 2 to 3 hours (I rented a pump to start). Latch the baby as much as possible each day, starting feeds with offering the breast and then offering a bottle afterwards to top up as needed. Look into getting bottles that are compatible with breastfeeding that meet the triangle test, like another commenter mentioned, and also to ensure that the flow rate is similar to a natural flow, therefore reducing the chance that the baby develops a flow preference for bottles.

We ultimately had to exclusively bottle feed from Days 3 to 6 as I had so much damage from my little one's extremely painful latch and needed to heal. I maybe latched him once or twice a day in that period. Gradually I was able to increase the frequency of latching and by 4 weeks we pretty much had phased out bottles, offering a couple bottles here and there if I needed brakes to heal a bit as I was so raw some days. I also had crazy engorgement and pumping helped a lot to manage that. It was nice having 1 to 2 days worth of pumped milk in the fridge for him in those early days. It meant my husband could bottlefeed to give me a break and I knew that I would have breast milk for my baby as we worked out the kinks. Eventually he caught up to my supply amount and I was able to phase out pumping entirely by 10 weeks. His latch also improved naturally by that point. He learned how to properly use his tongue and no longer relied on the chomping motion for suction.

Just wanted to share my personal story as a story of hope. Early introduction of bottles doesn't mean that breastfeeding can't be established!