[Avodah] Establishing the Yichus of a baby

[Marty Bluke via Avodah]

The Gemara in Kiddushin (73b) has the following case. 4 women give birth to
baby boys in the same house and one is the wife of a Cohen, one the wife of
a Levi, one the wife of a Nasin, and one the wife of a mamzer. The Gemara
states that the midwife is believed to say which is the son of the Cohen,
which is the son of the Levi, etc.

The Ran quoted by the Beis Yosef (Even Haezer Siman 4) states that this is
a takana d'rabbanon that min hatorah the midwife is not believed (because
it is a davar sheberva which requires 2 kosher witnesses).

This brings up the some obvious questions:
1. What did they do before this takana? It is clear that men were not
around during childbirth so how was there any yichus?
2. When was this takana made?
3. How could the Torah have such an impractical approach to these matters?
There Torah was given to human beings to observe and for thousands of years
women gave birth with no men present.
4. How does the halacha deal with the current reality where newborn babies
are taken away to the hospital nursery with a whole bunch of other babies?
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