How to Avoid splitting Normals on Geometry with blendshapes

I am exporting mesh with blendshapes from Maya to unity, and no matter what export settings I try, I get varying levels of the same problem, my mesh separates, My normals are unlocked, and softened in maya, split per vertex normals is unchecked in my exporters, and yet every time I get results like these:

Calculating Normals on import will correct the problem, even if I calculate them to hardened edges:

But I need some hardened edges on my character's body, so I can't just calculate normals and forget about it. Any idea whats causing this?